Craters of the Moon, Idaho (June 17,18)

And the story begins!  Actually, I am going to let my photos tell most of the story.  My vacation started with two days in southeast Idaho, just west of Arco in Craters of the Moon National Monument.    My very first real sight of what I thought I would be experiencing came with a view like this.  But, it turned out being so much more surreal, bizarre, unusual, absolutely crazy and amazing!

entering the Preserve

The road through the Monument.

This was to be my campsite for two nights.  The winds were unusually higher then normal (gusting up to 86 km/hr) which made it impossible to pitch my tent.  I moved my car to block the wind but even my car was a rockin.  I ended up staying in a motel in Arco, 28 minutes down the road, and that worked out perfect.

Hiking trails looked like this....

 

...around cones like this....

...even straight up cones....

...and my favourtite, through wilderness areas....

Staircase to a Cave!

This was the only one I was brave enough to enter!

The only color that was constant the whole time was blue sky and along with that came heat.

This is the actual scene.  I did not use color accent here.    

Coral colors were splashed here and there!

I used color accent to highlight the blue.

Pretty in pink!

This is a track on GoogleEarth of one hike that I recorded.

It was during my second day here, when I was talking to a guy from Vancouver,  it hit me that I was finally on vaction.  He asked when was I heading to Yellowstone and I couldn't tell him.  I only knew that right then and now, as I was speaking to him, that it was the middle on an afternoon in mid June 2012.  I was living in the moment and that was all that really mattered!