Hiking volcanic area four years ago

Atop the northern dome on Red Island,
the Salton Sea visible in the distance

Four years ago yesterday (April 15, 2009), we went exploring the remains of volcanoes in the desert! We drove all the way to the south end of the Salton Sea in California and hiked through four different areas, picking up rocks on the way.

Several thousand years ago, lava flowed up out of small volcanoes in this part of the world. Obsidian and basalt still can be found on the ground.

There's still lava not far underground, and it causes the water there to boil and steam up. Sometimes that water escapes to the surface in what are called mudpots, and we walked through a whole field of them!

After our adventure, we went to nearby Palm Springs, where we ate at Ruby's Diner and shopped at the downtown stores. I bought you a captain's hat at the hat store!

Here are a whole bunch of photos from our adventure!