Today we hiked the Tongoriro Alpine Crossing which is one of the 10 best one day hikes in the world. You are hiking between 2 mountains and through several volcanic craters.
It is in the Tongoriro National Park which was designated a Dual World Heritage area in 1993 due to cultural and volcanic features. After paying our respects to the guardian, we hiked through flat scrubland to the wall of the first crater.
 |
| We hiked to the left of the Mt Ngauruhoe |
 |
| And over the low spot in that ridge |
 |
| If you zoom in, you can see the trail To the right of the black mark |
At the base of the ridge is Soda Springs which forms a pretty good waterfall (see the tiny people).
This is the warning sign before we hiked over the ridge into the volcano and mist.
.JPG) |
| Looking back down the trail |
They have nice facilities every 3km or so along the way.
Hiking across the caldera, the guide took time out to diagram the different kinds of volcanos ranging from very explosive (high silica content) to non-explosive shield volcanos like Hawaii (low silica content).
On this ridge, we turned left and hiked up the ridge With one more warning before we started up.
We hiked along the ridge to the top of Red Crater for wonderful views into the crater and valley beyond.
 |
| Zoom in to see the trail on the left |
 |
| Looking backup the trail |
 |
| Steam vents at Emerald Lakes |
 |
| Final view of Emerald Lakes |
We ate lunch at Emerald Lakes and then headed over to Blue Lake. It was rainy and misty weather, but cleared up a bit after we left Blue Lake.
 |
| Zoom in to see a white vertical line. That is the road to the trail head. Trail is on the hillside on left of the photo. |
The terrain really changed as we left the alpine zone and got back into the forest.
Back at the trail head where the Goddess of Internal Fires greeted us after a safe trip.
This hike was 12.3 miles with 2485 ft of gain and 3600 ft of loss. Overall a wonderful day even if it was a bit windy and rainy on top.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment