Solfatara

We took advantage of a beautiful day over Easter weekend to see Solfatara.  It's an extinct (or possibly inactive?  dormant?  I dunno...) volcano near us that the ancient Romans believed was one of the entrances to Hell.  Yup.  I did just say that...and no it wasn't just to see if you were paying attention. It was pretty impressive because the area surrounding it is beautiful and lush and then you walk through the gate, through some trees and BAM...you're in Eastern Utah.  Ok, not really...but it's barren.  Well, at least INSIDE the crater.  It was quite unsettling walking around knowing I was IN a volcano.  And every once in a while I would step and it would feel and sound hollow and my gut would drop...thinking I was about to fall through some volcanic crust and die a`la Gollum in LOTR.  Aside from the landscape it was stinky.  Like rotten egg fireworks left to ferment in steaming baths of boiled sauerkraut stinky.  Nasty.  Ick.  

So the trail starts out like this...not too bad.  Actually looks a lot like the Logan River parkway in some places.  Well, minus the river.  And the mountains.  

And you turn a corner and this is what you see...and smell:

Yes that does say 302 degrees.  And the yellowish orange spot on the rock is dyed I imagine from all the sulfur in the steam venting out of the rocks.

These are brick "saunas" built into the mountainside by the Romans.  They used to come and sit in them and breathe in the air...they thought it was therapeutic.  I don't know how they did it...I had to breathe through my mouth just to make past here...it was funky with a capitol F. 

Miles was obviously ::so:: impressed with it all.  (couldn't you seriously just eat those cheeks?!??)

After we "survived" our trek near the gates of Hell we rewarded ourselves with some gelato from our favorite gelateria.  Mmmmmm