hawaii part 3
day 6 was more time in volcano national park.
we drove up to the mauna loa lookout. it was pretty clear but i thought the view of kilauea crater was better from below. we also visited kipuka puaulu, which is a forest that is surrounded by, but was left clear of, a prior lava flow.
then we went down chain of craters road to see the kilauea lava flow. the volcano has been actively spewing lava every day since 1983. the lava currently flows primarily from side vents, and not from the caldera which we hiked the day before. on the way down, you see the steam clouds where the lava meets the ocean.
looks somewhat like smoke from a fire. the usgs summary notes: "when lava meets the sea, large steam plumes (dubbed "laze" for lava haze) are created as the more than 1100°C (2012 °F) lava boils and vaporizes seawater. a portion of this steam recondenses and rains out of the plume as acidic precipitation that has been enriched with seawater salt, and contains tiny glass fragments generated by the intense physical interaction of hot lava and cool seawater."
the other direction looked eerie as well (not sure why)
at the bottom, the lava has gone over the road
so you park a ways off and hike out over dried pahoehoe lava
past some warning signs
to a lookout. which gives you better views, but not that close.
we hiked around to the far side of the lookout. we were right above this beautiful black sand beach
and could also see steam vents above the lava
when the sun was down, we starting seeing the lava through the steam.
it was mesmerizing. check my slideshow (tip: reset time to 1 second).
for the most part, the lava flows to the ocean under the dried lava in lava tubes. however, there are vents here and there where the lava is not covered by the lava tube. we had hiked in 3.5 miles in light, and had to hike back out 3.5 miles in the dark. but, we heard from some canadians (Megan and Walid) that you could see lava up close by hiking inland (in the dark). so we did. after a while, we started seeing glowing lava in the distance. along the way, i remembered the warnings that we could fall into an active or no-longer active lava tube with a weak roof. and, we ended up going through aa lava as well, which is spiky, sharp, and difficult to walk across.
with about 2.5 - 3 miles of hiking, we ultimately made it to a pretty big lava vent.
it was basically like a big fire place sized furnace with spots of slow-flowing lava. we were close enough to touch it. the rocks under our feet were hot. i had my tripod but was a bit anxious when trying to take photos.
and, then, after Mark pointed to the lava flowing beneath my feet in a crack between two rocks
it was time for me to find cool rocks to stand on so that i could stop worrying about falling in.
Walid, fearless, borrowed my tripod and spent 20 minutes close in taking pictures - which showed the slow moving lava expanding (hopefully will get a flickr link).
we then had another 3 miles to hike back to the car. all the stars were out. the lava vent we had visited seemed to be growing bigger as we hiked away. the whole trip took 8 hours; with 9 miles of hiking. it was exhausting, and magical.
day 7 we moved houses again. i was jonesing to take some life-sized shots in volcano with my polaroid, so we hiked down to the kilauea caldera in the morning. in the rainforest on the way down, i took these:
then, i took a series on the caldera floor
i think the life-sized really gives you a sense with the small plants that are colonizing the caldera floor
our next house was in south kona. on the way, we stopped at a beach with sea turtles.
water flowers
and birds
check back for days 8-10.
we drove up to the mauna loa lookout. it was pretty clear but i thought the view of kilauea crater was better from below. we also visited kipuka puaulu, which is a forest that is surrounded by, but was left clear of, a prior lava flow.
then we went down chain of craters road to see the kilauea lava flow. the volcano has been actively spewing lava every day since 1983. the lava currently flows primarily from side vents, and not from the caldera which we hiked the day before. on the way down, you see the steam clouds where the lava meets the ocean.
looks somewhat like smoke from a fire. the usgs summary notes: "when lava meets the sea, large steam plumes (dubbed "laze" for lava haze) are created as the more than 1100°C (2012 °F) lava boils and vaporizes seawater. a portion of this steam recondenses and rains out of the plume as acidic precipitation that has been enriched with seawater salt, and contains tiny glass fragments generated by the intense physical interaction of hot lava and cool seawater."
the other direction looked eerie as well (not sure why)
at the bottom, the lava has gone over the road
so you park a ways off and hike out over dried pahoehoe lava
past some warning signs
to a lookout. which gives you better views, but not that close.
we hiked around to the far side of the lookout. we were right above this beautiful black sand beach
and could also see steam vents above the lava
when the sun was down, we starting seeing the lava through the steam.
it was mesmerizing. check my slideshow (tip: reset time to 1 second).
for the most part, the lava flows to the ocean under the dried lava in lava tubes. however, there are vents here and there where the lava is not covered by the lava tube. we had hiked in 3.5 miles in light, and had to hike back out 3.5 miles in the dark. but, we heard from some canadians (Megan and Walid) that you could see lava up close by hiking inland (in the dark). so we did. after a while, we started seeing glowing lava in the distance. along the way, i remembered the warnings that we could fall into an active or no-longer active lava tube with a weak roof. and, we ended up going through aa lava as well, which is spiky, sharp, and difficult to walk across.
with about 2.5 - 3 miles of hiking, we ultimately made it to a pretty big lava vent.
it was basically like a big fire place sized furnace with spots of slow-flowing lava. we were close enough to touch it. the rocks under our feet were hot. i had my tripod but was a bit anxious when trying to take photos.
and, then, after Mark pointed to the lava flowing beneath my feet in a crack between two rocks
it was time for me to find cool rocks to stand on so that i could stop worrying about falling in.
Walid, fearless, borrowed my tripod and spent 20 minutes close in taking pictures - which showed the slow moving lava expanding (hopefully will get a flickr link).
we then had another 3 miles to hike back to the car. all the stars were out. the lava vent we had visited seemed to be growing bigger as we hiked away. the whole trip took 8 hours; with 9 miles of hiking. it was exhausting, and magical.
day 7 we moved houses again. i was jonesing to take some life-sized shots in volcano with my polaroid, so we hiked down to the kilauea caldera in the morning. in the rainforest on the way down, i took these:
then, i took a series on the caldera floor
i think the life-sized really gives you a sense with the small plants that are colonizing the caldera floor
our next house was in south kona. on the way, we stopped at a beach with sea turtles.
water flowers
and birds
check back for days 8-10.
posted by billy ocallaghan at 9:39 PM
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