Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho. (National Park Service Photo
If you want to experience what it's like to visit another planet without getting in a spaceship, consider these five national park areas with out-of-this-world landscapes.
Let's start with one of the most obvious:
Craters of the Moon National Monument and PreserveThis enormous park, 400 square miles, located in Idaho definitely has a different planet-type appearance to it. Much of the landscape basically consists of undulating black mounds with really nothing else. That's because those mounds were once made with molten lava. This area has some of the best rift cracks in the world (including the deepest on earth at 800 feet), varieties of basaltic lava, ancient tree molds and lava tubes. Within this desolate landscape, you can also see fissure vents, cones, and giant rock blocks. But in