The park visitor center is located near the only entrance to the park. Here you will find displays and information to help you plan your visit. Slides, postcards, maps, and other publications about the park are displayed for sale. Park Service rangers at the information counter can answer your questions and help you plan your stay in the park.

The displays alert you to wildflowers and wild animals you might expect to see here. Other exhibits describe the park’s geologic history. A film explains how lava flowed from fissures in the Earth to create the cinder cones, lava flows, and other volcanic features you will see at Craters of the Moon. The film includes actual footage of eruptions of the same type that occurred here some 2,000 years ago. Check at the visitor center for the schedules of conducted walks and campfire programs. You also can get information here about two self-guiding nature trails and the park’s Loop Drive (see page 59).

Activities and Evening Programs.

In summer, ranger-guided walks and other programs give visitors an intimate look at various aspects of the park. Program schedules vary; we suggest that you contact the park for current information prior to arrival. Several sites have been designed to make it easy to see the park on your own. The visitor center is a good place to stop and plan your visit. Evening programs may find you wanting a sweater or light jacket to ward off the chill, despite the hot summer days. These programs explore such topics as the park’s wildlife and its survival, the powers of nature, and this landscape’s volcanic origins. Some programs are illustrated with slides or movies and take place in the amphitheater.

Self-guiding Trails.

Explore three representative areas of the park on self-guiding nature trails. Devils Orchard Trail helps you understand the complex environmental concerns facing Craters of the Moon. A pamphlet available at the trailhead discusses the major impacts visitors, neighbors, and managers have on the fragile lava landscape. Numbered explanations correspond to markers along the trail. You can walk this trail in about 20 minutes. North Crater Flow Trail takes you through a lava flow that includes rafted blocks (crater wall fragments) and other interesting features characteristic of basaltic lava flows, which are explained by wayside exhibits. This trail goes through one of the most recent lava flows in the park. The shiny lava flows made early explorers think the volcanic eruptions had happened only a few years before. Please stay on trails in this very fragile area. The park was established to provide protection for its unusual landscape features. These require continuing protection and you can help provide it. Caves Trail allows you the opportunity to explore a lava tube. These caves formed when the surface of lava flow cooled and hardened while the interior remained molten and continued to drain. After the lava drained away, a hollow tube remained. A pamphlet at the trailhead provides a map of the cave area and tells you what to expect as you explore these lava tubes on your own. Wayside exhibits point out the most interesting lava formations along the trail. To see only Indian Tunnel, the largest of the lava tubes, will require nearly one hour.