I Might As Well Have Been on the Moon

Recounting my visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument

Two weeks ago, I wrote from my tent in Grand Teton National Park, but today I’m back in Minnesota now after having visited both the Tetons and Craters of the Moon National Monument. Craters of the Moon is a national monument in Idaho that protects a volcanic landscape that erupted as recently 2,000 years ago. The monument has over 60 lava flows that erupted during eight episodes over that last 15,000 years. The monument is 753,000 acres with over half of that lava fields. To help put that in perspective, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is about 1,000,000 acres. The lava fields would cover just under half of that.

I’ve wanted to visit Craters of the Moon for over a decade, and every time I was teaching in the Tetons I thought to myself that I should take the four hour drive from there to Craters. Instead I either went home or visited Glacier National Park. But this year, I was determined to get there.

I had assumed that the landscape there would click with me, but it didn’t click right away. I’m not sure if that’s because there are limited developed locations to visit with strict rules that keep you on the trails or if it was just the weather or if it was just me. Regardless, I came away with a few good photos. I’m not sure if I will plan to return again, but if my travels bring me nearby I would stop again for a night or two.

Here’s a quick trip report.

The developed area offers 42 campsites on a first come, first serve basis, but I did notice people camping in the parking lot and on the nearby highway after the campsites were full. I knew I wanted to stay a two nights, so I snagged the first one I found that was open. It wasn’t exactly flat. I should have spent a little more time, because there were other open spots that would have been a little better.

After camp was up, I drove the loop trail and hiked a few of the trails. The first thing that struck me was the textures of the lava.

There were so many different textures that lava can form. It makes sense, but it didn’t occur to me how interesting it was until I saw it.

The next thing that grabbed my attention is how many trees and plants actually live in the field. It surprised me again. I was expecting a stark, lifeless landscape, but life was everywhere. That said, the misshapen pines and the dead pines were what interested me most.

My afternoon goal was to figure out where to shoot sunset and sunrise, and to see if I could find any good night sky spots. I felt like I struck out for the first sunset, but in the end I got a shot that I liked.

For sunrise, I went to the top of Inferno Cone and watch the sunrise over the flats of the lava fields and Big Southern Butte in the distance. I worked out a composition the day before, so I knew exactly where I wanted to place my tripod and camera.

After sunrise, it got hot with an empty blue sky. I went into the nearby town and talked to a couple of people at the local museum. In the afternoon, I got a permit to visit the lava tubes. Most of the tubes were closed to the public because of a bat disease. It’s highly spreadable. It can spread on clothing or shoes that you wore to another cave. I went to the two tubes that were open. One had an entrance at one end and exit at another, so I went through it.

After the caves, it was almost sunset. I ate quickly and hiked up the Big Craters, which were really impressive holes in the ground. I couldn’t figure out a great way to photograph them, so I ended up photographing a wall of a crater and then the sunset from there.

I waited until the night fell on the area and photographed the spatter cones. Someone was trying to light paint a cone with a headlamp, so I had to time my shots to avoid that. The Milky Way was in a great position from where I was to make it look like it was coming out of one of the cones. I believe its called the Snow Cone. It’s dark there, but not as dark as northern Minnesota.

The next morning, I returned to the trail that goes to the lava tubes to shoot sunrise. It was an epic sunrise with colorful clouds all around me, but the landscape just confused me and I didn’t get anything that I like. I wanted to get sunrise over a collapsed lava tube, but my game was a little off and I didn’t get the sun centered like I wanted it to be. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice that in the field.

Like I said, the landscape didn’t really click with me, but I’m glad that I visited. I really enjoyed learning about the area and experiencing the landscape.

Until next time

I hope you enjoyed this journey to Craters of the Moon. I’ll see you again in two weeks. Until then, I still have space open in my Online Lightroom Class and a workshop for Wisconsin WACCO club members. There are a few spots available on my 2026 photo workshops as well. 2026 is nearly full. If there’s a workshop that you want to take, make sure to get on the waiting list.