• View of the Great Rift

    Craters Of The Moon

    National Monument & Preserve Idaho

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  • All roads and facilities are open

    The Visitor Center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Obtain a permit before entering any authorized cave.

Places

log restroom

Historic restroom built by the WPA

The Monument contains numerous cultural as well as natural resources. A number of archeological sites have been found at the monument. Goodale’s Cutoff, a section of the Oregon Trail that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, passes through the northern section of the monument.

The historic structures at Craters of the Moon date from the two main periods of National Park development—the rustic era and the Mission 66 era. Congress began appropriating money for park infrastructure, such as roads and buildings, in the mid-1920s, and funding increased during the New Deal during the 1930s. The monument’s log comfort station and log warehouse date from this era, and these structures are the only extant rustic-style buildings constructed by the National Park Service in Idaho. The second major period of park development began in 1955, when Congress allotted seven hundred million dollars for the Mission 66 program. The five housing units, the visitor center, the utility building and the brick comfort station in the campground were built during this time. The buildings are an early example of Mission 66 development, and are the only representations of Park Service Modern architecture in Idaho.

Historic Structures at Craters of the Moon (pdf)

 

Did You Know?

Alan Shepard on the moon

In 1969 Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Joe Engle and Eugene Cernan visited Craters of the Moon. They explored the lava landscape in order to learn the basics of volcanic geology in preparation for future trips to the moon.