We left Sunny Gulch Campground and said goodbye to the Sawtooth Mountains, heading south to the Craters of the Moon National Monument en route to Grand Teton National Park. This place is SO cool! We were able to spend several hours here (in between driving, grocery shopping, getting gas, going to church, etc.), and it is like a different world. This is the site of significant ancient volcanic activity (in Idaho!), and we saw spatter cones, cinder cones, lava tubes, craters, and other geological features characteristic of volcanic activity. We hiked nearly every named trail in the area, including going up a big cinder cone (kind of like hiking up a sand dune made of crushed volcanic rock). It would have been very hot there if not for the nearly constant gusting wind.
