travel history blog

Visiting the world’s largest open volcano: trip report

/ Stumpa / Leave a comment

Poás Volcano National Park contains the world’s largest open volcano, complete with a vibrant greenish-blue to yellow volcanic lake that bubbles and boils. The volcano’s opening is over a mile across and bubbling sulfur can be seen between the steam.

Poás is located within a beautiful and lush Central Conservation Area of central Costa Rica that encompasses 6 National Parks and many protected areas. Birds flutter through the heavily vegetated area, including the rare resplendent quetzal, toucans, and hummingbirds. The Poás Volcano sits among rolling hills and is close to the coffee farm that sources Starbucks. 

The volcano several weeks before the September 2019 eruption.

Poás Volcano’s future as a National Park began with student Mario Boza, a Costa Rican who visited National Parks in the United States in the 1960s and was inspired. His Master’s thesis involved a plan to implement a conservation program for the Poás area. The volcano and surrounding area was granted National Park status in 1971, ensuring the area was protected and could not be developed.

The park complex includes a museum and gift shop, a lecture hall (where everyone hoping to view the caldera from the overlooking viewing platform must take safety training), and hiking trails. The 8,885 ft tall volcano has erupted many times since 1828, most recently in September 2019 and 2017. In April 12, 2017, the park was temporarily closed in apprehension of an eruption. Ash and steam clouds began to form, and a large blast on April 22 threw rocks and debris that damaged the viewing platform and nearby structures.  After this eruption, the local hiking trails (including to Lake Botos, a green high volcano lake) closed and extra infrastructure was put in place for shelter for tourists and employees near the viewing platform. 

  • Sulfur in the caldera
  • Damage from 2017 eruption
  • Damage from 2017 eruption
  • Comparison from 2017 eruption
  • More damage from 2017

The walk up to the viewing platform is 0.3 miles, and hardhats (provided by the park) must be worn. You must be in a group with a guide to go to the viewing platform and you are only allowed a maximum of 20 minutes at the platform (the gases released by the volcano aren’t so great to breathe much longer than that). The walk up/viewing platform is accessible, but a slightly higher viewing platform does require some stairs. On the walk up, the surrounding jungle becomes thinner and the effects of acid rain from the volcano can be seen readily. The platform offers stunning views of the volcanic crater and sulfur lake. On clear days, another large Costa Rican volcano, Arenal, can be seen in the distance. 

View of the neighboring area

The site is a National Park and requires an entry fee and brief safety training before you are allowed to visit the caldera rim. The path to the viewing platform is paved and is 0.3 miles each way. Nearby hiking trails have been closed for several years due to eruptions. A strong sulfur smell is always present and can bother those who are sensitive. We stayed onsite about 1.5 hours, as the hiking trails were still closed when we visited. The area around Poás is absolutely beautiful, so don’t be dismayed at the 20 minute volcano limit.

Before the 2017 eruption, photo from Wikimedia

An interesting find in the Utah west desert

/ Stumpa / Leave a comment
The Utah West Desert: perfect for social distancing.

Out on the border of the west desert in Utah, you’ll see some odd things: the salt flats, the Dugway bombing range scars, and strange plaques. This modified cairin and plaque in the Grassy Mountains were accessed by dirt bike; there are some nearby roads (primitive, “roads” is used loosely) on BLM land. This area is open for recreation: just on the west side of the Grassy Mountains is the Dugway proving grounds. Don’t wander into Dugway, aka Area 52 (as a former colleague and former Dugway employees tells me). This site used to be a test site for chemical weapons, though that was stopped years ago (check out the Dugway Sheep Incident for an incident involving Dugway in the 1960s).

The plaque in the Grassy Mountains.

Anyway, the plaque is definitely not anything official. It reads “This monument was made by Geo [George] Davis Bower in Dec 1895 herding sheep for Deseret Livestock Co plaque was made by Bower family put on Aug 15 1973.”

The map below shows the I-80 Grassy Mountains rest stop, the mountains directly north are the Grassy Mountains themselves. The marker is in the upper 1/3 of the mountains on the west side.

I was curious about this, so I sent an email to the Research Center of the Utah State Archives & Utah State History. The response was quick, and they’re very helpful and nice! They have no record of an official monument or plaque on the site, but they did find a young George Davis Bower on the 1880 census record for Croydon, Morgan, Utah (line 21 below). Also, there may be some evidence of polygamy in the census below. Three women heads of households with young children and the same last name (lines 9-18 below). This was in 1880, and Utah wasn’t granted statehood until early 1896 on the condition polygamy be outlawed. So, not illegal at this time, but still interesting. Utah’s late statehood was mainly due to the resistance to giving up polygamy.

They also sent me a bit of info on the Deseret Livestock Company, which was (and is) owned by the LDS Church. They had Mainly sheep, and now it seems another area owned by the same company is a bird refuge out in eastern Utah (according to the Audubon Society). The area out by this plaque was the Skull Valley Winter Range. The company wasn’t incorporated until 1891, so this monument must have been placed before it was “ officially “ a company. The Skull Valley Range was apparently purchased from the Iosepa Ranch in 1917 (so really this plaque may be off on dates or who actually owned the land when the monument was built). Iosepa is now a ghost town of a Hawaiian Mormon settlement. The town was actually deserted in 1917, when the Iosepa Ranch was also bought out. The area is really harsh, and it’s pretty easy to see why crops didn’t grow well before widespread irrigation was available. I have not been to Iosepa yet, and there’s not much of the buildings left. There is a monument and a cemetery that is still kept up by descendants, however.

For more information on the Deseret Livestock Company, I was sent this link to a digital book. If you happen to know anything about this area or monument/plaque please let me know! I’d love to learn more. Thanks for reading! I’ll update here if I learn any more.

Cliffs out in the west desert.