Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

I headed up to Idaho to scout out a spot to watch the Great Total Eclipse of the Sun on August 21. Depending upon who you talk to, there is either fear or anxious anticipation about that coming event. Speculation (probably well founded) has it that millions of people will make a mass migration across the country and around the world as a band of blackness shoots across all of America from Oregon to Florida.

Although Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve receives high marks for its visitor experience, staffing and funding shortages could put areas within and outside the park’s core at risk, according to a “State of the Park” report issued recently.

National park concessionaires, deeply concerned over what they see as three decades of stagnant visitation to the National Park System, want Congress to authorize better marketing of the parks, longer "high" seasons in the parks they believe would generate more revenues for infrastructure improvements, and expanded concessionaire opportunities in the parks.

More than a month after she was reported missing, searchers found the body of Dr. Jodean "Jo" Elliott-Blakeslee at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.