road trip     

Craters of the Moon is another active volcano. From the National Park Service:

"Craters of the Moon formed during eight major eruptive periods between 15,000 and 2000 years ago. Lava erupted from the Great Rift, a series of deep cracks that start near the visitor center and stretch 52 miles to the southeast. During this time the Craters of the Moon lava field grew to cover 618 square miles. The smaller Wapi and Kings Bowl lava fields also formed along the Great Rift during the most recent eruptive period (approximately 2000 years ago) ...

The volume of past eruptive events suggests that slightly over one cubic mile of lava will be erupted during the next event. In the past, eruptions in the Craters of the Moon Lava Field have generally shifted to the segment of the Great Rift that has not erupted for the longest period of time. Therefore, the next eruptive period is expected to begin along the central portion of the Great Rift in the Craters of the Moon Lava Field, but may well propagate to the northern part of the monument in the proximity of the loop road. Initial flows, based on past performance, will probably be relatively non-explosive and produce large-volume pahoehoe flows. Eruptions from potential vents on the northern part of the Great Rift may be comparatively explosive and may produce significant amounts of tephra (airfall material ejected from a volcano), destroy cinder cones by both explosion and collapse, and build new ones."

Remember when Mount St. Helens blew?

Rope lava.

Desolation.

The "craters." There are lots of lava tubes as well.

Huges chunks of volcanic rock spewed great distances.

Mordor, again..

And yet, there is tenacious and beautiful life everywhere.

So, the signs posted everywhere say "STAY ON THE TRAIL." And everywhere there are entitled knuckleheads who either cannot read or choose to disregard their impact on a place that gets a lot of traffic. At least at the Grand Canyon ("STEEP CLIFF, STAY) AWAY FROM EDGE") and Yellowstone (DO NOT APPROACH THE BISON) the consequences are greater and these types generally become candidates for a Darwin Award, posthumously given to those who graciously remove themselves from the gene pool.