HONORS
CRITICS
- 10 U.S. National Monuments You Need to See (The Discoverer)
Established: May 2nd, 1924
Area: 464,303 acres
Visitors (2015): 246,826
The Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles. All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet. There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava, as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.