The Road to Montana

Beautiful, green, hilly, empty (nobody home) -- the road from Arco, ID to Helena, MT was another spectacularly scenic road.  There were many farms, and then we went up into the mountains.  Travelling north on I15, we noticed that exit zero was for Monida (name made up from Montana and Idaho).  The town is right on the state line. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passing beautiful lakes, the road went through mountains of brown, green, and red. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We crossed a mountain pass at 6000 feet and noticed a warning sign and a pullout for putting on chains (hopefully only in winter). 

 

 

 

 

 

Another pullout is found after the pass, for taking your chains off.  We didn't actually see any snow here, but we did encounter some rain.

 

 

 
For more pictures, click Road to Montana

 

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon, so named because that's what it looks like, is an area of volcanic rocks and craters. This area in Idaho is the most seismically active area in North America.  This area has had an active volcanic eruption every 2000 years for the last 30,000 years. By the way, the last volcanic action was about 2100 years ago.

We took a scenic drive and took a few short hikes. 

 

 

 

We were amazed at the abundant wildflowers, many just starting to sprout out of the lava rock.  It was a stark contrast to see green plants with flowers growing out of the black volcanic rock. We imagine that in a few weeks the hills will be a riot of color.   

We spent the next day waiting out a series of storm fronts that passed through the area.  Strong winds and dust storms don't mix with driving a motorhome.  Even though we were parked in a campground the winds were strong enough to rock our 15 Ton home on wheels. We 'turtled up' (brought in all the slide out rooms)  to help avoid damage until the wind storm was over.  It was a little scary.  

For more pictures of Craters National Monument click Craters

(Thanks to Jim for supplying the text for this post.)