Craters of the Moon

Gina called and invited us to meet them at Craters of the Moon on Labor Day weekend. We have wanted to go back and explore the caves, so Saturday morning we headed out to do some caving. We packed a picnic lunch, grabbed breakfast at Sonic and drove for about an hour and a half to get there. After meeting Bryan and Gina and Gina’s brother’s family at the visitor’s center we all drove out to the cave area. The first cave the kids and dads explored (Dewdrop cave) was pretty small, but was oh so exciting. The kids all thought it was awesome to be able to climb around, in and under all the lava formations. The second cave – Boy Scout Cave- we all went in. There was some ice and it was nice and cool, but after being hot outside, we didn’t really need our jackets. Gina’s brother and all the kids took off exploring another part of the cave while we went up the trail to see if it had another exit.. It didn’t, so we went back and everyone was coming except Lydia. She had managed to follow another group into the first part of the cave and came out shortly in tears. We reassured her that we would never leave her and would definitely look for her if she was lost and all was well. The last cave we explored was Beauty Cave. After a short descent, it was just a huge open cavern. The kids had fun climbing in the alcoves and it took several tries to get pictures due to the mist.

After the caves, we went back to the Visitor’s Center and had a picnic lunch. The clouds started to roll in and cool things off with a little breeze. Bryan and Gina and her family were camping for the weekend, so I hope the weather was bearable for them. The kids had fun chatting and climbing the wall (literally) and it was fun to see Bryan and Gina and meet her brother’s family. As it turns out, we are very distant relatives on the Sorenson side too. Isn’t it a small world?