Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve
National Monument · Arco, Idaho
Six hundred square miles of lava on the Snake River Plain, erupted from the Great Rift - the largest, deepest and most recent volcanic rift system in the continental United States - in eight episodes ending about two thousand years ago. It is not extinct; the geologists expect it to erupt again. NASA sent the Apollo 14 crew here in 1969 to learn volcanic geology before they went to the Moon, which is where the tourist name comes from, and a seven-mile loop road runs through cinder cones, spatter cones, lava tubes and a landscape that Robert Limbert described in 1924 as the surface of the moon seen through a telescope.
1266 Craters Loop Road, Arco, Idaho, 83213, United States
The monument is open year round, 24 hours. THE VISITOR CENTRE keeps shorter hours in winter than in summer and closes on federal winter holidays. ⚠ THE SEVEN-MILE LOOP ROAD CLOSES TO CARS FOR THE WINTER, roughly November to April depending on snow, and is groomed for skiing and snowshoeing instead - AND WHENEVER THE LOOP ROAD IS NOT FULLY OPEN TO CARS, NO ENTRANCE FEE IS CHARGED AT ALL. An entrance pass is otherwise required, valid seven days, and America the Beautiful passes are accepted. ⚠ ENTERING ANY CAVE REQUIRES A FREE PERMIT FROM THE VISITOR CENTRE and the desk is not always staffed - go there first, not to the cave trailhead. The Lava Flow Campground is first-come, first-served and has no reservable sites.
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