Craters of the Moon National Monument charges $20 per vehicle, covering the driver and all passengers for seven consecutive days, or $10 per person entering by bike or on foot, with youth 15 and under free. The visitor center is open 8am to 4:30pm daily. On August 22, 1969, NASA brought Apollo 14 astronauts here specifically because the moon's surface is largely volcanic, and these pilot-astronauts needed genuine geology training to describe lunar samples accurately.
A single $20 vehicle fee stays valid for seven consecutive days, genuine value for anyone planning to explore the Loop Road and lava tube caves across more than one day, not a single-visit-only charge.
The astronauts were trained pilots rather than geologists, so field training at volcanic sites like this one taught them to become educated observers, able to describe lunar surface features accurately to geologists waiting back on Earth.
For more than 50 years, Craters of the Moon has continued serving as a genuine NASA research site, now supporting current Mars mission preparation, not a one-time historical training ground.
Craters of the Moon sits along US Highway 20/26/93 in south-central Idaho, roughly 18 miles southwest of Arco.
Arco rewards understanding both the practical multi-day value of the entrance fee and the documented reason NASA chose this exact volcanic landscape for astronaut training. The 1969 Apollo training visit itself is covered in full below.
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