To the land of Mordor

[Wolffarmer]

Several weeks ago I took a little trip up to the southern part of the Craters of the Moon National Monument. To a large kipuka called Laidlow Park. 78,000 acres of range land surrounded by lavas.

I left the pavement at Kimama Idaho and headed north on the Kimama/Carry road at about 15 miles I turned eastish at the Laidlow air strip. Then in about 5 miles crossed the lava flow to enter the kipuka.



This flow is about 10-25,000 years old. In my opinion. A good road over it. Then it was miles of good road. Some was gravel but mostly dirt. I was headed to the eastern part of the kipuka. Near the volcano called the Bear den. I went up a road that didn't look like it had been driven yet this year. Maybe not last year either. I stopped on the road, right on the road, and made camp for the night.



The camp was peaceful, could not see a man made light any place or noise. Did some reading and turned in and slept nice and warm in the TD.

In the morning on the ridge behind me.



Three deer



Big South Butte, about 40-50 miles away



Cinder cone north of camp a few miles over some older lava flows.



Loaded up and ready to roll some more.



After a few miles start getting close to the "Wall of Death" as I call it. A rather young flow of AA lava. Maybe a bit over 2000 years old.



Getting closer



Road to Mordor



Getting close to Mordor



On the road in Mordor. Crossing the AA lava flow on a road made of light broken lava. It kind of crunches and rolls under your tires. It is also a bit like glass.







The road is about 1 mile long then you get back to the normal desert roads. I then went up to the northern part of the kipuka.





Views of the Sawtooth Mountains with a lava flow in foreground.



One of the stock watering holes. Grazing is allowed as part of the agreement with the National Parks when they expanded the Monument in the 90s'



Official National Park sign on my way out of the kipuka. I left by the North West road and to the northern part of the Kimama Cary road and then south to Kimama. It was about 120 miles from pavement to back to pavement. Was a nice little trip. No fees to pay just gas.

Randy

[Martiangod]

Awesome pics, nice to see places i can,t. Looks like a peacefull little trip, thanks for sharing

[IndyTom]

Great Pics. I second Chris, thanks for sharing. It is a place I have never heard of.

Tom

[KCStudly]

Nice peaceful get away, Randy. Thanks for sharing.

[campmaster-k]

Very cool place Randy, thanks for posting. I hate piss ants.

[S. Heisley]

Thanks, Randy. That was a very interesting trip tale with much that most of us would probably never see, if not for your pictures.

[Wolffarmer]

Thanks folks. Maybe sometime I can take a bunch of ya out there.

I forgot to mention that when I woke up that morning there was hardly a cloud in the sky, The breeze was just barely noticeable and there was a mess of meadow larks singing for me. Was one of the better mornings I remember.

On that trip there was little wind so I could usually stay out of most of my dust and once in the kipuka I did not pass anybody else while on the road. In there I ran across a couple of sheep outfits and one family was stopped to look at a crater with a bunch of nice shady aspens.

Randy

[DragonFire]

fantastic pictures...I had no idea there were lava flows there...frozen in time while making their way across the bunch grass meadow...simply amazing. Saw a couple of flowers in the earlier pics..makes me wonder what it looks like in spring bloom.

Just you, the wind, and the wild things. What a fantastic trip. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us...

[Wolffarmer]

We don't have the flowers like in Death Valley and those kind of deserts. But we do have some nice flowering plants. I like the blue lupine. and the wild onions sometimes called Death Camas. They are tasty, Just don't taste to much.

Oh and the one cactus we have can come in different colors. It is just a run of the mill beaver tailed or pad type cactus, nothing to spectacular.

Randy

[eaglesdare]

wow, loved the pics. thanks so much for sharing with us. i would be a little worried about driving over that stuff. i can't imagine it being good for the tires. but wow again, that part of the country is really beautiful.

[desertmoose]

beautiful country Randy.

By the way, I don't remember your tear being blue. Did you repaint it or is my memory worse than I thought?

Sam

[Wolffarmer]

Your memory is fine. My staining on the cheap wood kept getting worse and worse so I painted the sides. The baltic birch use on the top, front, etc was great so I still have 1/2 a woody.

Randy

[Wolffarmer]

Hey slow. Some years back I wondered out on those lavas and came across a big ole bone, well the end of one kind of looked like a leg joint or something if I remember right. Did not see any others around there. It was real old, probably a buffalo.
Just and uneducated guess.

Randy

[Scouterjan]

Randy, great pictures, thanks for posting, nice wide open spaces all to your self
Jan

[Mukilteo]

Now that's my kind of camping.