Jordan Craters

This February we decided to head over into Oregon to Jordan Craters. It is a big lava flow with some volcano like craters, once of which was active only 100 years ago! There are lots of caves and lava tubes to be explored. The weekends leading up to the camp out were sunny and almost warm so we thought the weather would be perfect. But just as we hit the Idaho Oregon border, the snow began to fall. Luckily, the further we drove the less precipitation we got. We were dry in our campground until morning. We awoke to icy snow everywhere. The boys had opted to sleep in a cave and were relatively warm and very dry. They did however have some little visitors (mice) that made their way into the Scout's bags in the night and helped themselves to M&Ms and other goodies. After breakfast we explored the craters and some good sized caves but soon the snow and wind picked up so we called it a day and headed home.

Loaded up and ready to go. The snacks were already open.

The boys setting up their sleep gear in their cave.

Other side of the cave. They really couldn't have fit any more boys.

The Grubmaster whipping up some Skybaby Special. It was delicious.

We tried out a backpacker cheesecake recipe. It turned out great!

No snow when we went to bed but we woke up to this.

It was more ice than snow.

The smart ones slept in the cave. This is the entrance.

Time to wake up! Everybody claims they slept warm enough. 

Maybe it was all the mice nestled up with them.

The mice got into this Scout's M&Ms and ate every one of them!

Our campsite.

The largest crater. We hiked down into the center. 

The picture doesn't do it justice, it is very big.

The snow actually accentuates the lava flow details very well.

Hiking around the crater rim.