Volcano!

Today we drove to the Volcano Natonal Park. We saw the massive main crater, which reerupted in 2008 blowing a big new hole which is still spewing clouds of sulphur and steam.

We then drive down the 20 mile chain of crater road, which passes a number of craters and lava fields that were created in the 60s and 70s.

The new volcano erupted in 1983and has been erupting ever since, though unfortunately the current active lava flow is in a fairly inaccessible place. 20 miles down the chain of crater road the lava flowed across and blocked the road in 2003. Apparently they spent $10 million dollars reopening it only for it to get covered up by a new flow 4 months later. At this point they gave up! In places the lava is over 100 foot deep and has added 500m to the coastline.