Idaho Backroads Four

I’ve been taking small trips to check out different terrains in the South Central area of Idaho. Our house is in Ketchum (Sun Valley area). I drove to Carey, Idaho, and headed East on highway 20.

It is a slight uphill for 25 miles to get to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. To get there, you travel thru farmland until you get to the desert.

You start to see a lot of lava: red, brown or black.

Eventually you arrive at the entrance to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. The entire Southern part of Idaho was formed by a massive lava flow (must have been at least 30 or 40 years ago). This area still shows the lava on the surface. It sounds boring, but is actually pretty darn interesting and beautiful in it’s own way.


Boring Sidenote: The last time I was here was in 1972. Our band, Amra Arma, was working our way across America to end up at the International Carnival of Experimental Sound (ICES 72) in London. My good buddy, Jeff Karl, and I were also climbers with the Sierra Club at the time, so we spent some time climbing the lava formations before getting back in our VW bus with the other 5 people and all our gear. A few years later Jeff sniffed in some dust that had blown up from Fresno to Sacramento because of a freeway construction project in Fresno. It was determined to be similar to the dust discovered in King Tut’s tomb and gave Jeff “King Tut’s revenge”, a brain disease that eats up your brain. He died not long after.

But back to the ride: After one honkin hill for 1.5 miles, the park.

The park ranger let me in for free since I forgot to bring any money ($4 for bikes… how many bikes to they get out there in the middle of nowhere?) and I poked around a bit.

Back on the road, it was slightly downhill all the way back to Carey. A great 22-26 mph sleigh ride. 50 miles, 3 hours. And then the drive home.