Huguangyan Volcanic Lake

Huguangyan Lake, about 20 kilometres southwest of the city, sits in a volcanic crater and is a UNESCO Global Geopark site. The lake is circular, unusually blue, and surrounded by basalt formations recording eruptions from across the past 140,000 years. The contrast between the calm water surface and the evidence of violent geological events in the rock around it gives the place a quietly unsettling quality.

Walking trails circle the lake and cross through the basalt fields, where the cooled lava has weathered into irregular columns and blocks that the subtropical vegetation is slowly reclaiming. The park is well maintained and not overrun; weekday mornings can be almost empty. The visitor centre has reasonable geological exhibits that put the formations in context. Allow two to three hours for the full circuit trail.

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A story
Huguangyan is a maar — a low-relief volcanic crater formed by a phreatomagmatic eruption, when rising magma hit groundwater and exploded. The eruptions that created it occurred between 140,000 and 16,000 years ago, producing the perfectly circular basin now filled with water. Scientists have cored the lake sediments to extract a 140,000-year climate record from the pollen and microscopic organisms preserved in the layers.