Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, USA

In the United States, you can admire fantastic lunar landscapes in Idaho. There is a unique national park, which is called Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Its area is about 1 600 square km. Numerous researchers and ordinary tourists admit a surprising similarity of local landscape scenery to the lunar surface. Researchers found out that the volcanic activity has greatly contributed to the formation of this landscape, as well as the processes of crustal movements did.

The volcanic activity in the area is taking place for more than 30 million years now. Modern scholars believe that it has repeatedly changed the face of the national park. The unique area gained a status of the reserve in 1924. Its main value is a bunch of well-preserved magmatic traps, which have begun to form millions of years ago. The national park is famous for an amazing variety of columns, mysterious caves, and miraculous monuments each year attracting thousands of travelers from around the world.

It’s not difficult to reach the reserve, as it’s in the immediate vicinity of the city of Arco. Many hiking trails are laid in the park. All of them are quite simple and do not require any special training. Travelers will have an opportunity to climb to the highest point of the park and look at lands from the height, as well as to photograph themselves against the unique igneous traps and feel like real astronauts. Next - Rio Tinto River