I Woke Up on the Moon

I camped at Craters of the Moon Monument park last night because I wanted to wake up within one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is stunning here. Lava flows have left the landscape blackened with precarious formations and paths. 

Here is the registration board at the camp site:

It is on the honor system, which means that you place money in an envelope, deattach the receipt and place the receipt in one of the 50 or so "pockets" to register your site. Well, I picked out the perfect secluded site for a female traveling alone (!) and when I drove up, a family of four was parked there with a couple of tents and no intention of leaving. I called out, "excuse me, but this spot was unregistered so my ticket is on the registration board." A gruff man replied, "well we have been here for three days. Good luck!" I looped around the camp site and just when I thought all of the spots had been taken, I found one hidden off to the side of the bathroom house (phew). At this point it was around 9pm so the sun was rapidly setting. After staring at the moon and stars for a while, I drifted off to sleep. When I awoke at 6am, everyone was still asleep so I decided to explore the park.