Craters of the Moon

BLM NLCS-Craters website | National Park Service website

The monument is a geologic wonder cast in a wild and remote landscape. Craters, cinder coves, lava tubes, deep cracks and vast lava fields form a strangely beautiful volcanic sea on central Idaho's Snake River Plain. The Monument is jointly managed by the BLM and National Park Service.

Location 
The Visitor Center is located approximately18 miles southwest of Arco on Highway 20, and 50 miles northeast of Shoshone on Highway 26.

Facilities

• Campground
• Restrooms
• Drinking water
• Charcoal grills (no wood fires permitted)
• Visitor Center
• 7-mile scenic loop drive with access to hiking paths and
interpretive trails

Craters of the Moon became a National Monument in 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge set aside an area in southern Idaho containing “many curious and unusual phenomena of great educational value.”  In the years that followed, the boundaries of the Monument were expanded and altered numerous times by Congress and by five Presidents.  In 2000, President Bill Clinton initiated a 13-fold increase in the size of the Monument in order “to assure protection of the entire Great Rift volcanic zone.” This was accomplished by merging the existing National Park Service unit with a new unit of the BLM’s newly created National Landscape Conservation System. 

The fundamental purposes of these two national systems have been brought together here to enhance public service and protection of nationally significant natural and cultural resources, while retaining many of the traditional uses of the land.