Volcan Lliama and Parque National Conguillio

Ken, the kids and I took off one Sunday to find a virgin Auracaria forest. I believed this to be in this National parque. Being adventurous we took the scenic route "Ruta Enterlogas" You may think this is a major roadway between towns. Wrong, this is a windy gravel road. We appearantly picked up a sharp rock along the way, which resulted in Ken changing a tire on the side of the road. We finally arrived at the park and were very surprised to not find a forest. I feel what we did find was a wonderful surprise. The park road winds right through the lava field from the 1994 eruption on Volcanoe Lliama. This was incredible. I have never seen anything like this. The massiveness of it is beyond words. We studied volcanoes last year and it was wonderful to be able to now stand on a lava flow and recap all we learned last year. This same volcanoe had a small eruption in April, which my brother witnessed. We were still able to see the hot side of the volcanoe and one of the vents still active. We also explored the nearby lake which had absolutely no fish, but did have algea evidents of its thermal nature. We discussed the exposed rock layers and the kids theorized about the possible geological events which would have lead to the layers. We also discussed why the rocks were different colors. We had an opportunity to show our kids the difference in where the actual lava flow was and the pyroclastic flow and how this affected the land scape and vegetation different. I could never ever ever have given my kids this kind of understanding about volcanoes in books movies or any other media. You just had to be there to completely get it. I would never have thought a lava field could be beautiful, but it was. The awesomeness of nature reminds me how small I really am. How something so devastating can also be so beautiful I will never completely understand. I just thank God for showing it to me. I did not miss the forest we set out to find at all. Our God truely is awesome! If you ever doubt it watch the birth of a child or stand in a massive lava field. You will be humbled.