Hi All. Our Idaho, Wyoming, and South Dakota trip is coming up in about 3 weeks (Yippeee!) and I was doing some last minute planning. Was looking at the craters of the moon website on nps.gov and noticed that there were caves we can explore. Boyscout cave sounds wonderful with ice all year round! The site tells me what we need but do we need to sign up with the park ranger for a tour or can we do it alone? Has anyone done this or any of the caves there? Was it difficult? Was it scary? Was it amazing and beautiful? We are getting really excited about this and would be really disappointed if we won't be able to do it so please let us know if we need to reserve anything beforehand or have some specific requirements. We drive in that morning from Idaho falls (arriving by plane the night before) then driving to Jackson Hole with a 9pm dinner reservations for our 1 year wedding anniversary at Snake River Grill so we were planning to get to Craters of the moon at 8:30 (leaving Idaho Falls around 7am)then planning to leave Craters no later than 3pm. Please tell me we are allowing for enough time. Google maps said it would be around 3 1/2 hours drive from Arco to Jackson Hole.

Many thanks in advance!!!

maria

We visited Craters of the Moon a couple of years ago, and it is pretty amazing. We did go into one of the caves and we didn't need a guide; it was just one of the stops along the driving loop through the park. It wasn't one that you had to crawl to get into or anything like that, but we did have to climb over rocks. I guess we spent a couple of hours there -- maybe not that long. We loved it, but found that, after a while, one corner of the lava landscape looked like all of the others.

I would definitely go, though.

I have driven through craters of the moon several times (I live in Nevada and have relatives in Montana) I haven't been to all of the caves but there are a few that are easily accessed as you drive through the park and you can simply get out and walk to them.

Thanks Ruff and Sarah. I wanted to know about Boyscout Canyon though - do you know of anyone that's done that? We bought knee pads the other day in preparation.

We have done many of the Craters of the Moon caves, including Boyscout Cave. That particular one is not hard at all, and only involves one short space where you have to crawl. Admittedly, by August, there isn't a heck of a lot of ice left, but there still is a little patch.

We last went about 5 years ago. At that time, the NPS rented large flashlights for very little, and sold cute inexpensive hardhats that were a big hit with the kids (and actually worked a couple of times on some low ceilings!).

Here is a short guide to the major caves:
http://www.nps.gov/crmo/planyourvisit/caves-trail.htm

Thanks Alf! Yes, I read the guide before and when I realized there were caves for us to go crawling around in. So I guess it's safe enough for kids to be allowed in. Excellent! I'm a bit disappointed that not much ice is left by the time we go but I'm still looking forward to it. We live in Houston so it's definitely something different for us. many thanks for your response!