Phot-o' the Day: Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho USA

A trail through black volcanic rock leading to a mound of black volcanic rock

Today is the 51st anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the surface of the moon, shortly thereafter, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taking those small steps for men, giant leaps for mankind, on the lunar surface.

In all my travels, I've not yet been to the moon. I think, back in 1969, we just assumed that we would be able to visit there as tourists by now. But we're not. I've been to Moon Township, Pennsylvania. They have a very nice airport there. I've been to Half Moon Bay, California. They have a very nice ocean there. And I've been to Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is somewhere near nowhere in Southern Central Idaho. They have a lot of very nice rocks there. Lots of rocks.

I'm not sure why Craters of the Moon, the national monument, was named what it was. The surface is hard black volcanic rock. There are no craters per se. And gravity works just the same there as anywhere else on the earth's surface, so I'm not sure what's supposed to be "lunar" about the place. But I guess it's as close to the surface of the moon as I am going to get this lifetime.