Craters Again

Once you lower your gaze from the horizon, there are many treasures to find among the iron-rich lava flows.

Even the most mundane plant takes on a new significance in this forbidding landscape.

And when there are no plants to decorate the scene, the twisted lava steals the limelight and gives you a show the likes of which there are few other places to see such a thing. Here, this ropy lava looks very much like a tree with bark intact lying on the ground.

In other places, the lava takes on an alien, sinister form, suggesting, as the early explorers thought, the surface of the moon.

Yet, there is life here. And life had been here for quite some time. The cycle continues. Who knows. Perhaps in another 10,000 years this place will look just like any other place in Idaho. That is assuming there are no more erruptions.

 Just a note to let you know that all here is not natural. Just a few miles (15-20 or so) up the road is the entrance to Idaho National Laboratory. If you thought that Los Alamos was a remote place, think again. Northern New Mexico is out of the way, but this place is remote. It is a 30-45 minute drive to the nearest bit of civilization (and it is only a bit) where there is no snow. The only thing you can see from the main road is the entrance gate. The rest of the facility is set well back from the gate and is only barely visible.

This is the place where Admiral Rickover developed the reactors for his nuclear submarines and various exotic reactors have been built and operated. Much happens here that you cannot talk about and I certainly do not know. You'd really have to be devoted to the job to choose to work out here.