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Craters of the Moon National Monument and the Arco KOA

February 18, 2018 by kokotg Leave a Comment

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Travel dates: June 23-24, 2017

We had had a long day getting to Arco, Idaho, complete with nearly 300 miles of driving, a monster traffic jam, and a stop at our beloved Museum of Clean. Rarely have we been as happy to see a campground as we were to see the Craters of the Moon/Arco KOA that night. And it turned out to be a totally charming little campground and the perfect place to stay for our planned Craters of the Moon visit the next day.

Craters of the Moon/Arco KOA

I won’t do a full campground review post about it since we were only there one night, but to hit the highlights: the owners were really friendly and helpful, and the campground was very tidy and well-kept. In addition to RV and tent sites, they have a handful of cabins and a few teepees for rent. We paid about $46 for our full hookup, pull through site.

We had site C1, which was a nice long, spacious site where we didn’t have to unhitch:

Site C1 at Craters of the Moon KOA

ooh–I’d forgotten about that mountain view in the background! Welcome to Idaho!

The site was lovely and we had a ton of room since we were on the end of the row; the only issue with it was that it was right on the route to the store/bathhouse/laundry, so we had a ton of traffic right next to (and sometimes right through, depending on the campground etiquette of the person passing by) our site. It was not a huge deal, but if you like to keep to yourself you might want a less public location.

They have a big camp store with groceries and souvenirs and even a good selection of craft beer (they even let us break up six packs and buy individual beers).

We didn’t use the pool, but it was right by our site and looked nice (and popular that evening). We did use the laundry (also right near our site, so that was convenient), and that all went smoothly. There’s a nice playground, too.

They also have a really nice patio area behind the camp store. The website says they do ice cream socials there regularly:

They sell food and deliver it to your site. We took advantage of this since it was late when we got in and we didn’t feel like cooking, but I can’t really say I recommend it. The food is heated up frozen fried chicken and pizzas and the like, and we ended up wishing we’d gone out and sampled Arco’s very limited restaurant scene instead.

Arco’s claim to fame is that it was “the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated solely by nuclear power” but if you’re staying at the Arco KOA, you’re probably there to see Craters of the Moon National Monument, a very worthy detour on any trip that takes you through the area, just 19 miles down the road from the KOA.

We had just one night in the area, so we opted to visit Craters of the Moon on our departure day, before we made our way to Oregon.

craters of the moon national monument

At Craters of the Moon, we continued the volcano-intensive stretch of our trip that had started back in Yellowstone, atop a supervolcano. The weird landscape here is shaped by volcanoes and lava flow; the last major eruption happened 2000 years ago, and signs point to another one sometime in the future.

When we were there, there was ample RV parking in the visitors center parking lot, but things may be different during busier times, and parking was limited at some of the stops along the road through the park. Admission is $15 per car.

We started our visit at the Visitor Center, checking out the small exhibit area and working on Abe’s Junior Ranger badge….sorry, Lunar Ranger badge:

We still had a long drive ahead of us that day, so we asked for recommendations for short hikes, and ended up at the .4 mile each way Inferno Cone Trail. This is pretty much just a steep walk straight up a volcano, to some very cool views at the top:

inferno cone trail, craters of the moon

And this was all we had time for. Off to Oregon!

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Campground Review of Craters of the Moon/Arco KOA in Arco, ID Visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument in Arco, ID with kids.

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Filed Under: 2017 Cross Country Trip, Campground Reviews, idaho, national parks

« Visiting the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, ID
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