July 4th:
Happy Birthday USA.
To celebrate, we climbed up to the crater's rim, descended into the caldera, and walked over to Surprise Lake.
The day began sunny and hot.
The terrain began to look much more volcanic the high we went:
As we approached the rim, we got into snow, but the temperature remained mild:
On the rim looking into the caldera and Surprise Lake (about 6 miles away; The Gates can be seen on the right):
Rim shots:
Eric and the 1931 Crater:
Surprise Lake, The Gates, Black Nose, and Vent Mountain:
Snack time on the rim:
A look at the common entry point (about 500 feet lower than where we enter the caldera):
Monitoring station on the rim:
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The common route into the crater seems to be a ram on the left of this frame. We just butt slid down the snow slope:
Eric at the top of the snow slope ready for action (and filming Tony):
In the crater:
We also dropped into 1931 Crater (a sub crater and site of the most recent eruption); Tony on the rim of 1931 Crater:
On the rim of 1931 Crater. Our descent and the commonly used ramp can be seen in this shot:
Weird world in the crater:
Near the source of the warm springs (we drank a lot of water with high doses of iron in it!):
Surprise Lake, The Gates, and Black Nose:
Our second camp (note the orange ring on the lake):
