Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Craters of the Moon National Monument
By: Jaycie Lillie, 6/28/23
There were plants! Volcanoes! Animals! Bats! Caves! I thought it was going to be like the moon -plain rock with no plants- but it wasn’t! Sage brush and cinder gardens live in the harsh conditions. We were surprised by all the pretty flowers and life!
We saw a blue butterfly!
It is dry like a desert. Lava rocks and cinder cone volcanoes have made this landscape.
We learned about the history of how this place was discovered. In the early 1900s an explorer and his friend set out to hunt dwarf grizzly bears here. A few had been found before. They foolishly brought their dog with them! The poor dog’s paws were scraped from the lava rock. They made him booties but still they took a whole day to rest. His friend went exploring on his own, Foolish again! He got stuck in a ditch and had to pile rocks in a pile to get out. He made it out. They came across a few springs. Not much water in this land. Now, guess where this is! It’s dry, not much water, volcanoes, caves/lava tubes, and looks kinda like the moon? IDAHO! Who would have thought! I didn’t. I thought of potatoes not volcanoes!
We actually hiked up to the top of a cinder volcano that is called, “Inferno Cone.”
It was steep and slippery. The ash fell as you stepped. But there were some really shiny lava rocks mixed in.
We made it to the top, though! Pretty views!
On the other side of the cinder cone was a cinder garden. A cinder garden is where flowers bloom on the side of a cinder cone volcano from its ashy soil.
I didn’t want to go in the caves. Last time I went it was cold, dark, and rocky. They went in a small lava tube and saw a snake. I’m glad I didn’t go if there was a snake. I would have hurt myself. On the nature walk we saw a huge snake! I ran. I almost stepped on it. I yelled “ah!” And I was gone. Everyone was confused until they spotted the snake themselves. It slithered across the path. I thought it was a rattlesnake but they told me it wasn’t. Oh well. Better safe than sorry!
Jett’s Wild Flight: Craters of the Moon!
By: Jett Lillie, 6/28/23
We drove 30 minutes to craters of the moon nm and earned our 126th Jr. Ranger badge!
I put a pin on the map for Claremore, OK. It seems that we are the first Claremorons to visit this park.
On our first hike we saw a Great Basin gopher snake, (non-venomous) and I wanted to pick it up so badly!!! But I knew I couldn’t because it was a national park, and you’re supposed to leave wildlife alone!
At first we didn't know what kind of snake it was. We were thinking a king snake, but later learned it was a gopher snake which is like a cousin (same species, different subspecies) to our Oklahoma Bullsnakes.
He was a friendly guy!
And VERY long!
We had a picnic lunch and hiked up a volcano 🌋 called inferno cone and hiked in some spatter cone volcanoes, too.
In one of the spatter cone volcanoes we saw snow!
We then hiked through the Pahoe’hoe lava flow to explore 2 lava tube caves.
In the first lava tube cave there was ice and some shiny lichen that was all silvery!
This cave was crowded as we were behind a field trip! One girl fell and got hurt.
At the second lava tube cave we saw another gopher snake outside of the cave.
It was smaller and acted a little scared. 😟 He almost came and slithered up my arm but then decided to not climb up this giant human thing and left to go in his hideout. Then after that we headed home! I had a great time!
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