Trip to Utah

Went to Utah to visit Roscoe as he was ordained a deacon. But first I visited my Dad and took Sam and Logan out to the volcano lava tubes.

188: In the BIG lava tube. We didn't go in any of the small ones. This one is about 30 feet tall and portions of the roof have caved in. On the other hand, the dirt road into here runs over the top of this lava tube and it hasn't fallen in ....... yet.











Another shot of them. Notice that Sam has flip-flops, a problem that haunted him as he slipped and slid on the sharp rocks. Logan has sandles which are better, but still somewhat short.
All of us drew blood before the day was over, but after this point I knew to keep to flat areas as much as possible so Sam wouldn't get his toes shredded. As we left here, I stepped on a large rock that rolled under my foot. As I lost balance, I grabbed another rock and it came off in my hand. So I fell on my butt, leaving skin on the rocks from my hand, forearm, elbow, and shins. It was embarassing. And painful, too.






192: Logan is touching a stone illustrating how the lava flow declined in stages, leaving ledges and cracks where the heat melted the rock above it making little stalactites.
The boys thought this was all very cool, and I couldn't get them back to the car until they were exhausted.
The upside of that situation is that they fell asleep on the way home and I had a peaceful drive.












194: Descending into the crater. There were 1, 2, or 3 ridges all around the crater, where the former crater melted into the lava flow. Notice that this ridge is leaning towards us in this photo? That happened as layers of the softened stone separated from the rest of the surrounding rock and melted on the side towards the crater's greater heat, slowly rolling in to it. This ridge is a frozen moment in time.








196: Walking out into the crater bottom, which is surprisingly flat although there are some depressions out in the center where Sam is walking. Sam is just visible above Logan's head near the center of the crater.