Craters of the Moon

Dan has not been to work in like a month. And while we have been a bit stressed about it, we have taken the time to enjoy ourselves. We decided that we might as well make the most of this situation. After all, there will come a day when our lives will be SO busy that we will wish that we didn't have work. So, we are living it up! 

Today we decided to go to a place called Craters of the Moon. Craters of the Moon is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. There you to explore this "weird and scenic landscape" where yesterday's volcanic events are likely to continue tomorrow...It is like two hours or so from Rexburg, but so fun!

We took Tess, Dan's youngest sister, with us. 

It started off by running up this HUGE thing called Inferno Cone. At first, the run up there did not seem too bad, but we soon realized that it was much bigger than we had realized. It was super windy at the top, but the view was incredible. 

After Inferno, we visited the Splatter Cones. The hike up there was nothing compared to our first. It was there that Dan informed that I HAD to stay on the trail. Apparently, wandering off of the trail would damage the old rocks and stuff. What fun is that? But I listened because Dan loves nature, and I love Dan. Well, accept for that picture where I am standing behind the fence. Obviously, I should not be there, but hey...I cannot be perfect ALL the time. 

We just wandered around after that. We found many trails and caves. Yes, caves. The first cave that we found, we were so excited because we had hiked for MILES to find it (maybe we got lost along the way...)! When we finally arrived, we realized that the caves were very dark and we did not have a flashlight. Pulling out our phones for some source of light, we wandered through the first part of the cave. Quickly, we realized that we had to crawl through a little tunnel in order to move forward. We were ready to crawl...but it was then that we realized a backpack was left sitting at the entrance of the tunnel. We were not there alone.

After watching too many scary movies, my mind tends to resort to the worse case scenario. So, naturally I was convinced that there was a serial killer in the cave and he was going to kill us if we went down that tunnel. I ran out of the cave screaming, and Tess followed. All the while, Dan stayed in the cave and laughed. He thought it was a ridiculous thing to think, but I refused to go back in the cave. We made it out alive! 

Other caves that we went to, other fears popped into my mind. At one point, I thought that we were going to enter a cave full of wolves. I didn't want to be an animals lunch! But Dan is more tough than I am, and he made me explore with him. When we would go in caves, I would hold on to his arm REAL tight and he would drag me along. It was actually quite fun! 

At one point, we entered a cave where there was a huge bolder than had fallen from the ceiling. Naturally, I wanted to stand under in and take a picture. Naturally, Dan did not like the idea (his fear was that it was going to fall on me....) Being the stubborn woman that I am, I did it anyway. Let's just say Dan was not too happy, but here is the picture! 

It was quite an enjoyable day! I'm pretty grateful to have such a fun, adventurous husband. We have a blast together. I just would not trade these moments for anything in the whole wide world.