Iceland is grabbing headlines for all the volcanic activity now shaping its landscape. Here’s a surprise for many – the same processes also made Arizona what it is.
S.P. Crater
Checking out Marmot’s Mica Rain Jacket
Earlier this year, I was staying at New Zealand’s Skotel. The next day, Sarah and I would take a crack at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, with a side trip up Mt. Ngauruhoe. Let me tell you, we were on edge with excitement. But we still had a day to kill, so we took a fairly short hike on some of the trails leading out of Whakapapa Village. The day started off quite nice. But wouldn’t you know? Weather near Tongariro National Park can be unpredictable. We got soaked, and spent way too much time with hair dryers trying to get our gear warm and dry again.
Never again, I decided. I pointed myself toward REI when we returned. They have a pretty large selection, and the staff is usually pretty helpful. But really, I’m from Arizona. My area gets about 7 inches of rain a year. I barely even knew what to ask to figure out which rain jacket I needed. I could’ve spent anywhere from $60 to $150 on a rain jacket … I always like to be armed with some information before spending funds of any sort!
I really could have used some help like the video below. This post comes to you courtesy of WebTogs, an online outdoor clothing company.
I rather like the idea of a YouTube demo like this. It’s a tidy explanation of the Marmot Mica jacket’s features. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but it also explains some of the various tabs, buttons and straps that [...]
S.P. Crater Easy to Overlook, Impossible to Forget
It’s easy to forget or to never even realize it – but much of northern Arizona’s landscape was shaped by fire. Or by lava, if you prefer a more precise word.
Volcanoes disgorged magma onto the surface, forming everything from towering giants like the San Francisco
Peaks to the loaf-like dome of Mount Elden to the mysterious hoodoos of Red Mountain. But trees have covered the landscape, often concealing the area’s volcanic origins.
S.P. Crater – An Unheralded Attraction
S.P. Crater, however, will resist any attempts to whitewash its furious history. This beautifully shaped cinder cone had the foresight to belch a four-mile long lava flow onto the flat prairie lands. Today, nearly 71,000 years after its birth, S.P. Crater stands out among a multitude of lesser cinder cones in the area, beckoning visitors to peer into the crater that once spewed ash and blobs of lava.
Few hear its call, though – that’s likely because of the nearby Sunset Crater National Monument. The park might be slightly more picturesque, with its pine forest and an equally haunting lava flow.
But for me, S.P. Crater has an effect that its just-slightly Disney-fied neighbor doesn’t: a sense of solitude that practically takes me back in time. I can picture the lava glowing red as it churns across the landscape like so much hell-flavored soft-serve ice cream. I can smell the sulfur in the air as another family of bombs rockets out of the crater, borne aloft by super-hot gases. I can imagine fumaroles venting steam into the [...]
