Craters of the Moon National Monument

Not far from Arco are these incredible lava fields which make up a very interesting feature of the Snake River Plain.



Interestingly this place was named well before anyone knew much about the moon, when the moon's craters were thought to have been formed by volcanic activity rather than meteor impacts, but sometime after the green cheese hypothesis.






This display shows the "hot spot" on the earth, over which the North American Plate is traveling. Right now the hot spot is under Yellowstone, but 10 Million years or so ago it was here under Craters of the Moon. That make this a very nice extension of any visit to Yellowstone.