She took me to the Moon

This will be the third attempt to get our visit to the Craters of the moon on the blog. When I think something to say, I think I have already told that. I hope what I say is not a repeat. I am including the city name of Blackfoot, because that is the type of town name I would like to be from. I love the Indian nation's names. Blackfoot, Shoshone, Apatche, Cherokee, etc.

The weather was rainy and very windy. All the territory is charred. (not chard, which I have learned is a vegetable, thanks to Cher, of Cher Shots) This lava bed is over 65 miles long and about that wide.

I took my hearing aids out (they are not water proof), got an umbrella and started up into one of the craters, I was nearly blown off with the Umbrella. I had to remember to hold it into the wind. Inside the crater it was still raining but calm.

I apologize because I have no idea where these pictures will end up in relation to my typing. But the next few pictures are from inside the crater. One shows the blow hole where the Lava came up thru for this crater. The actual formations are not too pretty, but very interesting.

Many of them look like the coals some of you used to empty out of the coal heaters.






Some of the lava is shiney, other parts are as chunks of unburnt coal I have one hill here that is nothing but small black cinders and gthings grow out here.

The air temp reaches 130 degrees while the ground and lave reach 150 degreees, yet something lives.

As we left I shot a contrast. This beautiful hill behind the farm land of potatoes or sugar beets.

Also all around the area you see dosimeters. These give a continous digital readout, reading the local radiation. Radiation hazards are real here, not from the Craters of the Moon, but from the many nuclear plants in the vicinity. There are (and have been) so many Nuclear sites on this plain (over 50), plus a nuclear labratory. I think the government is wise.

I am sorry for such a scanty report. I doubt if we will comeback, but it is worth you time if you are in the area. The Forest service has some excellent movies depicting how most probably this all happened.

The Indians say a Giant snake squeezed a mountain so hard that it erupted and the snake could not escape. The reason for thsi is some of the lava looks very much like a giant snake, the lava is cracked in the design of a rattler.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

A hint. Today we had a snowball fight at the Teton Pass over looking Jackson Hole Wyoming.

We have been seeing snow on the mountains around us for a couple days. Time to head South.