What not to do on an active volcano

Previous to our vacation, Matt said he wanted to be sure and have plenty of R&R time. As the trip drew near, Matt was a little frustrated because the itinerary continued to get busier. "We need to have time to relax and not go, go go," says Matt.

On the afternoon after our morning hike to the waterfall I announce Danny is ready to go back to the room and rest. I too am tired and ready to relax a little. Time for some rest. But does Matt want to rest? Nope. "Lance and I are going to go hike the old lava trail!"

The moms and babies head to the restaurant for some lunch and the boys head out to hike. Previously we had been told that the Old Lava Trail had been closed due to a lot of activity lately. Actually, the people at the lodge said, "You can hike that trail, but we can't guarantee you'll make it back." Then kind of chuckled. Apparently Matt and Lance took this as a challenge, not a serious warning. Off they went up the active volcano. After the fact, Mindy, LaRue, and I all agreed we were not aware exactly where they were hiking. I think if we had known we might have done more to stop them. CRAZY BOYS!

Lance poses with some huge lava rocks and dried out flow from the 1968 eruption. Shouldn't this have been a clue? TURN BACK NOW!

Here is the spot most normal people would turn around. OK, most "normal" people would never get this far anyway because they would heed the advice of experienced locals. Most "semi-crazy" people would turn around here, where there are no more trees. But not our Matt and Lance. I think they were trying to reach the crater to see if it was really active.

There is a nice view anyway. You can see the lodge buildings in the middle, slightly right of the picture. The open grassy spaces to the left are some of the cow fields from the morning hike.
Here Matt poses. I love the proudly rebellious gleam in his high. "Look how high we got! And to think, the locals think this is dangerous." And then, moments after this picture was taken . . .

The restful group of us was having lunch in the lodge when this HUGE explosion happened. We had a perfect view. It shook the whole lodge (notice how far away it was in the above picture). My heart stopped for my own safety and then stopped again when I realized Matt was hiking somewhere in the trees closer to that volcano. None of us had any idea how far up they truly had gone or I think we would have been panicking. Matt said as the huge rocks began rolling straight towards them, he realized he had much to live for and didn't want it to end like this. Lance, the true outdoorsman, quickly yelled to take cover behind another boulder. Apparently it rained rocks for quite some time and there were boulders as big as 2 and 3 meters across rolling down right next to them. Typing that makes my heart stop again. As soon as the rumbling stopped they raced back down to the lodge. Granted, it still took them a couple hours to hike all the way back, but they did make it. Matt profusely apologized for risking his life and told me never to let him go out hiking with Lance again. Way to blame the other guy. Really, we can only find humor in it now because neither was hurt. If I pause too long to think about what might have happened, it scares me like crazy. We are so grateful they made it back, because I really like Matt and so does Danny. I think Mindy and Kaya like Lance pretty well too . . . at least most of the time.

And this is the picture they took on their return hike to the lodge. Is it just me, or is it impossible to misread this sign? I'm not sure why they took the picture . . . maybe to prove their insanity in ignoring all warnings and their craziness in hiking the active volcano in the first place. I'm sure Matt will be able to use this story to teach some gospel principles in Elder's Quorum soon. And for those of you heading to active volcano sites soon . . .
DO NOT CLIMB!