Maybe only a little unsurprisingly, this is not the first time I’ve hiked along the rim of a volcano crater. The first time of course was up Kilimanjaro. This time I was out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the Azores islands, on the western end of São Miguel Island. The trail we took was a bit of a grinding hike, over 10% grade for the beginning half-hour, but it eventually got less steep and the views were definitely worth it.
Instead of going all the way around, we stopped halfway at an incredible viewpoint, had a quick snack in the blowing wind and clouds, and headed back down, about 14km in total. It’s not often you get to stand on the rim of a volcano, and even less often you get to stand on a rim separating a vast ocean and the lake that has formed in the crater. This is a panoramic shot from my iPhone with the crater lake on the left, and the Atlantic Ocean on the right!
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