Edward and Jennifer's trip to the Islands

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View Medium or Large image. Sulphur Banks

Rim Drive goes around the rim of the main crater. The first stop is Sulphur bank. Here there is steam coming up out of the ground and in some areas the ground has a dusting of yellow sulphur. You can smell the fumes, but they weren't too bad. This is your first indication of how geologically active this area still is.

View Medium or Large image. Steam venting from the edge of the crater.

Near Sulphur bank are the steam vents. Right at the edge of the parking lot is a small well with steam rising from it. Rain falls in the well and the ground is hot enough to make it turn to steam. You can feel the heat coming off the ground. There is a short trail which takes you to the edge of the crater. The whole edge of the crater is steaming, you can look down and see where the trees come to an abrupt end at the edge of a old lava flow. It is just like looking at the edge of a lake, except instead of water there is hard black rock. The ground here is too hot for trees or shrubs to grow, so there are only grasses. The Jagger Museum is right at the edge of the crater, you can look out over it and see a large caldera that still has steam rising from it. For over a hundred years, until the early 1900's, it was a lake of molten lava, then, it rose and covered the floor of the whole crater for a short time then cooled. The Jagger Museum also has explanations of how they study the volcano and artifacts they have collected. There is even a demonstration of volcanic activity where you can affect a seismograph by jumping up and down.

Rim Drive continues around, but we turned off and went down Chain of Craters Road. It meanders down to the coast, going by several older craters and many lava flows. Since it was raining, we didn't stop at the craters. Many of the lava flows that the road cuts through have signs giving the date of the flow. The newer flows are nothing but black rock, flows a little older have ferns growing in them. The oldest flows have scrub trees. As you get lower, the rain becomes less frequent, the sun never breaks through the clouds, but being able to get out of the car without getting wet was a welcome change. Soon you are driving along some cliffs by the ocean.

View Medium or Large image. Natural bridge at the oceans edge.

There is a nice pullout where you can walk to the edge and look down on the ocean and a natural bridge. Even though the water is a good 20 feet below you, occasionally some spray would come up 10 feet over the cliff's edge.

View Medium or Large image. Lava flow crossing the road.

The road eventually comes to an abrupt end where lava covered it in 1984. Since then, there has been one continuous lava flow. About 10 miles of the road has been covered. Currently, lava is flowing into the ocean 4-7 miles away from the end of the road. You can just see a cloud of steam rising in the distance where it hits the ocean. It is a long hike over unmarked land to get to the hot lava. The rangers recommend against going, but many people do hike to the lava and stay until dark. Be sure to take a flashlight and plenty of water with you if you intend on doing this. You can also hike to it from the other side of the road, outside the park. We didn't do it, so I don't know how far it is. If you really want to see the running lava, I think a helocopter is the easiest way. There is nothing else to do but turn around. It is an interesting but long drive. On the way back, we stopped where the road had been overrun by lava and they rebuilt it some distance away. There are little bits of road left and you can still see the white line going down the center.

View Medium or Large image. Thurston Lava Tube.

Back on Rim Drive, we stopped at Thurston Lava Tube. As lava flows to the ocean, the top cools and forms a crust. Lava flows under this crust, often for a great distance. After the lava stops flowing, the tube drains. Some of the tubes are hidden, but others have entrances. To get to the tube you walk down a path through a short stretch of rain forest. Giant tree ferns 20 feet tall or more tower over you and all manner of plants grow around you. The trail goes through the tube. Once inside, water is constantly dripping, even if it isn't raining outside. The tube is lit while the trail goes through it. At the end, the trail makes its way back up to the ground. The lava tube continues and if you have a flashlight you can walk through the unimproved tunnel. We didn't have one, so we followed the trail back to our car.

There were a couple of places we wanted to see but didn't because we were sick of the rain. First was Devastation trail which is a loop that takes you through several lava flows. Second is the rainforest near Thurston Lava Tube. There is a longer trail that runs through it, but we were tired of getting rained on, so we headed back.

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