South of the lake, the Elmenteita Badlands is a young lava field formed roughly 9,000 years ago — recent enough in geological terms that the rock is still raw, jagged, and barely covered by vegetation. The flow stretches for several kilometres and is one of the youngest volcanic landscapes in the Kenyan Rift.
You can walk across parts of the lava field on rough tracks, though it is hard going underfoot and the obsidian-rich rock is sharp. Local guides from the lodges near the lake can take you out at dawn, when the temperature is bearable and the contrast between the black basalt and the pale grasslands is at its most striking.