We took tge advice of a park ranger and decided to go for a hike to a cinder cone which was created during an eruption some 40 years ago. We figured that if we got a photo of ourselves iwith it we could claim to be "older than the hill".
When we arrived we discovered a very interesting trail which led to the origin of a lava flow from 1969. This was one of the flows we had seen from below on the Chain of Craters Raod and now we could see the lava up close. The landscape was very barren with some plant life struggling to get established on the very rock itself. We also came across lava trees. These are rocky outcrops which protrude from the ground and which were once trees. When the lava built up around these trees, the lava formed around the brunks and branches and remained standing. The wood burnt away and the mold of the trees is what now remains. We also saw the terminus of the flows where the forest continues to grow near the edge of the rocky walls. From the path we could see the summit caldera smoking in the distance, reminding us of the way the flows started.
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