Black for Miles #SundayStills

It’s color of the month photo theme.

And in the spirit of Halloween, our color is black or metallic. Since all I see around me is green and dirt brown with a sprinkling of falling yellow leaves, I decided to step through the travel archive.

The Local Color & New Home Build

As we set out traveling 5 years ago, it still amazes me how often we ran into either geological or historical item or place of significance that I’d never heard of. Perhaps it was in our school books and I forgot. That wouldn’t be unheard of especially since I don’t have the genius mind of my Mr. Engineer.

Black & Metallic in Nature

Back in 2019 was my first foray into large lava fields and even caves! Craters of the Moon is a National Park located in Southern Idaho. Along with camping and the visitor center, there are many areas to explore at this park. It turns out I never wrote a post about out visit but the landscape is a perfect fit for black and even metallic photos. It’s also a little eery and fits in to the Halloween time of year!

We arrived and found a camping site nearby on BLM land in the afternoon. That gave us time to visit the park’s visitor center, collect a map, and tackle the driving route before dark. From the NPS website, this park is described as “From a violet past, calm present and uncertain future…” and has miles of cinder cones, sagebrush and even a spring flower bloom. The park is setup so you can explore this “weird and scenic” landscape at your own pace and take your time.

Inferno cone is a trail head you can follow to the top of a volcanic cinder cone. The cone is not only black but has a metallic quality to it as well.

Day 1, being short for us, got us exploring the driving route areas. That allowed us to make note of what we wanted to do the following day. On day 2 we returned to a couple of trails and we capped out our adventure by going underground. Fortunately, we planned for the dark and brought our headlamps and flashlights. You do need to procure a permit before heading into the caves.

More Craters of the Moon Photos

More Lava & Caves

Since this first Lava experience we have also visited Lava Beds National Monument in Oregon and El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico. I don’t recall if Lava Beds NM had camping within the Monument but, El Malpais has a very nice BLM managed campground.

El Malpais National Monument

The sandstone features contrast with the black basalt in this New Mexico national monument. You can take a long hike across the big lava field and hope you don’t get lost following the cairns or simply follow the drive through the monument to see not only the black fields but the lovely big Arch.

Lava Beds National Monument

The fun thing about this area in Oregon is the 800 caves!

About the Photo Challenge

A weekly themed photo challenge hosted by Terri. Check out her Blog and come back to visit for more SundayStills and traveling posts!

More Sunday Still Posts

Thanks for visiting our travel blog and I hope you enjoyed finding the #SundayStills Challenge. You can join the weekly challenge by visiting our hosts blog Second Wind Leisure. and checking out Terri’s post for this week, Black and Metallic at Home and Beyond .