Mountain Home Craters

Ben

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Sep 12, 2014
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Sunday my Dad wanted to do some geocaching in an interesting looking area, so Brittinei and i tagged along on my bike. May be half an hour to get to the area from the freeway. After that it is preferable to have a high clearance vehicle. My parents did it with a couple bumps to their santa fe in stead.

My folks, when we first got near the crater. There are two here very near each other. I will call this one that we first arrived at crater 1, and the other crater 2. Crater 1 is slightly larger, and it's edge is not so even as crater 2's. It is my understanding that they were formed from collapse following explosive eruptions. You can see the Owyhee Mountains in the distance below the sun.
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The crater from the rim. The craters are quite large, and difficult to fit in a single picture.DSCF9111.JPG

The horse i rode in on. DSCF9113.JPG

This is the second crater. It's a little easier to appreciate this one as a giant hole in the ground because, even though it is smaller, the land is flatter the whole way around it. In the distance you can see an old cinder cone.DSCF9115.JPG

The first and larger crater again. I ended up riding the whole way around both of them on my bike. It was good riding. Poor driving for my folks. The bike handled the rocks very well.DSCF9118.JPG

Looking across the crater at the trail that leads to the floor. DSCF9119.JPG

My Dad found what he was looking for. DSCF9123.JPG

The transportation, gives some scale. DSCF9125.JPG

Heading up the rise along the far side of the crater. DSCF9129.JPG

Looking across to where we first arrived. On the floor of the crater you can see the numbers "391" written giant in tire tracks. I have no idea why. It must have been an atv that made it down three. I could not make it on my bike.DSCF9135.JPG

Looking at the break in the wall where the trail goes down. DSCF9136.JPG

Looking closer. You can see what the topo labels the Danskin Mountains, and I 84 in front of them.DSCF9137.JPG

Crater 1, and part of crater 2 behind it on the left. From the top of the rise. DSCF9140.JPG

Owyhees in the distance. DSCF9141.JPG

Rocks that my Dad thought were cars from the other side. DSCF9145.JPG

You can't tell here but this is actually looking across part of the crater, near the crease where the trail descends. The trails don't actually go all the way up the slope, they rock out. I started up it on my bike, but had to turn around, not easy. DSCF9146.JPG

I 84 and the Danskin Mountains. In the mid ground there is a line that is tumble weeds piled along a fence.DSCF9148.JPG

If you don't look at the free way and all that, you can feel pretty removed. We didn't see any one else out there. DSCF9149.JPG

Old cowboy camp. DSCF9151.JPG

The trail down, my Mom along it. She climbed down the rocks when we first arrived, and walked across the bottom, while i rode around, and my Dad and my girl friend found caches. DSCF9156.JPG

Sun set over the crater. DSCF9158.JPG

The views from the bottom of the crater.
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At the end of the day i did some thing stupid and broke the clutch lever of my bike. So there was no way riding it home that night, so we had to come back out today to fix it after buying a part. I finished riding around the craters as well.
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This is an old cinder cone you can see in the distance from high points along the craters. DSCF9175.JPG

Crater 2. DSCF9178.JPG

Survey marker. DSCF9184.JPG

My Dad took some pictures of me. I think the bike doesn't look as good with some one blocking the view of it. This is at the top rise along crater 1. DSCF9186.JPG

And looking toward crater 2. DSCF9189.JPG

Owyhees. DSCF9194.JPG

Going around crater 2. DSCF9195.JPG

On the right edge here you can see the rise along the rim of crater 1 that is slightly higher than every thing else. DSCF9200.JPG

The road out. DSCF9204.JPG

View of the cinder cone from nearer the high way. DSCF9205.JPG

Very good riding on the KLR out there, some sections with lots of first and second gear, others i could speed up all the way to fifth. Some places far enough from the craters i could ride cross country. Only takes a few hours to see it all though. I considered the micro trip reports for this also.

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That's pretty cool.
With all the volcanic rock and lava fields in that region it doesn't surprise me that there are craters like that.
 
yeah. would've loved to've saved this for a guess the spot. but i can't do that.

43.190448, -115.859778
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there were some puddles we drove around in a few depressed ruts on the way in, but every thing was dry at the site.

when i tried to go off pleasant valley road a couple days before though, every thing was awful.
 
I drove past Jordan Craters and Rome last week. Everything looked pretty wet then, but looked much better on the way back yesterday.
 
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