The Great Rift is a line of cones and lava vents that runs through the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It is considered to be the largest, deepest and most recent volcanic rift system in the continental United States. Two thousand years ago the rift was belching lava across the Snake River plain. Today the Great Rift is a series of fissures, lava flows, and volcanic cones nearly 53 miles long and from 1 1/4 to nearly 5 miles wide.

For a blow by blow description of what it is like to actually hike the Great Rift, read the diary of Pocatello, Idaho, resident John Walz. He and his friend Mike Jensen hiked about 60 miles, from the visitors' center at Craters of the Moon National Monument to an area half a dozen miles east of Minidoka. To do that, they had to cross the Great Rift. Ryan Walz, father to John, started the trek with them but was unable to finish, because of heat exhaustion.

They were following in the footsteps of adventurer Robert Limbert, or 2-Gun Bob as he billed himself. Limbert was a showman, a sharp shooter, a naturalist, a photographer and the most active one-man tourism band Idaho has ever seen. He pushed Idaho's beauty to a nation that knew little about the state. He also was the first white person to actually walk 80 miles through what is now known as The Great Rift and Craters of the Moon. It was largely through his efforts that President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 signed a proclamation designating thirty nine square miles of southern Idaho as Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Hiking The Great Rift: A Diary

Robert Limbert, Adventurer

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