July 1 , 2011
Crater of the Moon
It was 58 degrees this morning in Grand Teton National Park when I woke up. I didn’t want to get out from under the covers, but knew I needed to get on the road and travel west. I knew it was a long drive to Crater Lake, OR, and that I would not make it in a day of traveling. Instead of going over Teton Pass which I heard was about a 10% grade and steep curving roads, I took a more scenic less stressful route going further south, then west. It really was a nice scenic highway drive.
While I was on a scenic byway, I continued on that road and came across Crater of the Moon National Monument so I stopped. It was amazing. It looked like black dirt and/or rocks strewn all along the sides of the roads and prairie for miles, and miles, and miles. Sometimes it was all I could see, other times there was brush, plants, etc. mixed in with it. Driving into the park was an experience! It was interesting to be in a lava field that had such a wide variety of types of landscapes from smooth lava pebbles looking like dirt, to large boulders in various formations, and a lava cone that looked smooth but had LOTS of tiny flowers of various yellows, creams, pinks, and purple colors. They looked like rocks strewn across the lava fields. More pictures on the photo gallery page.
Crater of the Moon
Crater of the Moon
It covered so many miles that it was hard to imagine it as a active volcano. Much of the lava seems to have come up through cracks in the surface, rather than flowing down from a volcano. It was definitely worth the side trip, and an unexpected blessing as a result of staying off a major interstate. Even though the byways take longer than a highway, they are so much more scenic and less traffic. I did have an unfortunate accident, or should I say a large crow did. There were 2 large crows in the road and they flew to get out of the way of my van, only one of them flew into the front of my van and I could tell by the sound that it hit somewhere on the front. Only after a while when I stopped did I see where it hit. It hit on the bug shield of my van and cracked it almost in half. I really felt bad, but it happened so fast and I couldn’t have stopped in order to prevent it. I said a prayer for the bird’s spirit and wished it well.
I kept driving towards Crater Lake, OR. It was a long, long drive and too far for a day’s trip. I drove for many hours until it was almost dark and only got 2 hours into Oregon. I drove for about 2 hours to get out of Wyoming, all day traveling through Idaho, including my stop at Crater of the Moon, and only a while later got into Oregon.
Once again, I got to see so many beautiful wildflowers along the highway and in the prairies.
I looked at the map to find a stopping point for the night. It seems that for some reason in Oregon, that they must have changed the scale of miles. It sure was more distance in miles between cities than in other places on the map. I thought I had enough time to get through the byway through the mountain before it got dark about 9 p.m. It was about 125 miles and the road was pretty much deserted, and also winding and in many places steep, both up and down the mountain range. Very few cars on the road which was really a nice thing.
Anyway, it was about 8:30 p.m. I had about 70 more miles to go and thought I would be driving the mountain in the dark for about half an hour which I was not excited about and I knew there were no towns coming up before then. I prayed hard and asked God to help me get out of the mountain before dark. Prayer was answered. I had been driving west all day and the last hour was really tough driving into the sun with the twists and turns in the road and the sun was below my visor making it tough to see. About 45 miles out of the next town when I was going up another curve, I saw a sign that said something about entering the Pacific Time Zone, change clocks back. I thought ok, I wonder how that might affect the daylight or sunset. I drove another mile or so and the sun was coming down just above the mountain top and I knew it would be dark soon.
I kept driving and in another couple of miles going around another curve in the mountain, there was the sun, at a height about an hour before sunset. I know it was a God deal. It gave me the extra time I needed to get out of the mountain and find a small town where I could stop for the night. I found a Best Western Hotel with a 24 hour restaurant with a large parking lot so I stopped there for the night. It was hard to get to sleep for an hour or so. My body was still a hour later in time and I had been driving all day. I still felt the motion even though I stopped. I finally fell asleep and woke about 5 a.m., really 6 am., in my body time.
I got up and drove the rest of the way to Crater Lake, Oregon.
