I had to take a break from everything yesterday because after driving almost 500 miles on Saturday, I was exhausted.

Where did I go?

I went to a place I knew nothing about until two weeks ago when I went exploring the US on Google Maps. This is Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south Idaho. The landscape has been labeled as “weird and beautiful” because of the charred earth made of the volcanic lava that flowed about 2,000 years ago.

Knowing this is just a 3-and-a-half-hour drive, my mom and I knew this would not be the last time we visit this national monument. So we took our time and explored as much as we could in the few hours we had in the park. Then whatever left unseen would be left for our next visit.

Before we got there, however, we made a slight detour to an interesting roadside attraction.

We saw the sign at the side of the road for the Atomic Museum. Mom was curious what it was. I thought it has something to do with the atomic bomb but then wasn’t the atomic bomb studied and made in New Mexico, as we’ve visited Los Alamos in June? It turned out this is much more interesting. It’s the world’s first nuclear power plant.

Honestly, I was completely expecting to see a model of the reactor but instead, I saw the parts of the reactor, as if it’s been disassembled. I was a little disappointed but, still, it was an interesting place to visit.

Anyway, back to the Craters of the Moon. I tried to find more information about the park before I left but I couldn’t find much. The most recent YouTube video was 4 years ago, which, in my opinion, felt very dated. There wasn’t much useful information on the national parks website either. I guess this is one of those places that is not a popular attraction, and a place that I just have to go and explore.

Despite being a fairly large park, the points of interest were fairly concentrated. There were a total of seven points of interest along the 7-mile loop road around the park. We visited three of the seven – completing the 0.3-mile boardwalk loop around the North Crater flow, did 1.2 miles of the 3.6-mile round trip on the North Crater trail, and saw the couple of volcanic cones. We could’ve finished the trail if I’ve worn my hiking shoes and brought a couple of hiking poles.

As we headed home, I asked my mom if the trip was worth it because when we went to Capitol Reef National Park in June, she said Capitol Reef wasn’t worth the trip. “There’s no such thing as whether or not a place is worth the visit,” she replied. I will take it that she enjoyed the trip since she wanted to go back when the weather is cooler.