Normally I'm all over things volcanic, but this national monument didn't live up to expectations.
The NPS describes it as a "vast ocean of lava flows" but the parts of it I saw weren't vast. A rangerette wouldn't give me a permit for the lava tubes trail because I couldn't account for the whereabouts of my boots. I might have worn them into another cave in the past and, to avoid White Nose syndrome you aren't supposed to track between caves. At least El Malpais National Monument has hydrogen peroxide that you can soak your boots in, but Craters didn't.
So, without looking at the map, I took the North Crater Trail. It was OK but I was disappointed that it just ends at the road I'd driven up on. So, instead of reversing my steps I walked back along the road. If I'd known about that I'd have cached my bike at the end of the trail.
Another disappointment is that you aren't supposed to walk on lava heaps. And, there's a very good reason for that: one of the displays along the trail showed how much erosion took place when people could do that.
Note that that's the sun in the photos: they were taken over two hours before sunset. The sky wasn't due to volcanic activity, just wildfires. Thankfully the sky cleared up the further north I drove; by the time I got to Glacier it wasn't an issue.
