On the Road, Mountain Home, ID - 7/28/2016

This morning we left West Yellowstone.  We are headed to Bend, Oregon, but for today our destination is an RV park in Mountain Home, Idaho.  Gas prices in West Yellowstone are high so we waited until we got to Idaho Falls to fill the gas tank.  We have an 89 gallon gas tank and I estimate that we are getting about 8 mpg, so a full tank will take us over 600 miles.

We are following US 20 which takes us to Craters of the Moon National Monument in south central Idaho.  Craters of the Moon is a basalt lava flood area  with over 60 known lava flows dating from 15,000 to 2,000 years ago.  It covers an area of 618 square miles and contains more then 25 volcano cones.  The source of the lava is the 53 mile long Great Rift of Idaho which is basically a crack in the mantle that allows subterranean molten rock to reach the surface.  There are two kinds of volcano cones and here is a photo of a cinder cone.

And here is an example of a spatter cone.

Since it was lunch time we found a picnic table in the shade of a tree and had lunch.  That big chunk of rock behind Pat is a block of solidified basalt lava.

Here you can see more spatter cones and a dead tree that someone has covered in ceramic tiles, I guess as some sort of art project.  The "dirt" is pulverized lava.

The landscape for miles around the park is pretty much barren lava fields that are inaccessible.

We are driving over the Snake River Plain which itself was formed as a result of volcanic activity over millions of years.  As many of you probably know there is a large "hot spot" under Yellowstone National Park that is the source of all of the geysers and other volcanic activity.  However, 18 million years ago that hot spot was about where the Idaho - Oregon border is now.  The hot spot hasn't moved but due to tectonic activity the North American Plate has moved over it and about 8 million years ago was under this area of Idaho.  The North American Plate is moving at about 1" per year.

As we approached Mountain Home we saw signs for traffic delays and congestion and saw large numbers of RVs pulling into a large open field.  We were curious what was going on and later found out that this weekend is the annual Mountain Home Music Festival with a number of big time country music stars.

We arrived in Mountain Home and found our RV park.  Very nice large park and thank goodness we had a reservation because the music festival has them sold out.  Here is a photo of us set up in the park.

It was hot, 101 degrees but dry as a bone.  Tomorrow morning we head on to Bend, Oregon.