My National Geographic Day....

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You probably remember all the National Geographic articles on volcanos and especially the eruption of Kilauea in Hawaii, with photos of roads and homes being covered in oozing lava.....

Well, I was there today....! And since I can never see enough lava, I loved every minute....only regret is that there is no flow right now that you can get close to....so that experience will have to wait...

But here's lots of footage:

We started off with a view of the eruption in the crater, called Halema'uma'u, from the Jaggar Museum (where they have a comparison between Mt St Helens lava and that of Kilauea!). The plume of volcanic gas is a "constant and dramatic reminder of the molten rock churning in a lava lake beneath the crater floor". The crater became active again in March 2008, and this has closed the crater trails, and part of the rim road...

Next we hiked along the rim in clouds of steam from vents under the edge of the rim. The hike continued into jungle, and then looped back to the steam vents. By this time it was raining, and Bill decided to get the car and meet me at the other end of the Sulphur Banks Trail. I got soaked, but it was worth it...!

We decided to get some lunch, and drove into the village of Volcano, where we found a wonderful vegetarian restaurant (Café Ono). We were going to do a longer hike in the afternoon, but the rain changed our plans, and we drove the Crater Road through lava fields to the sea. It was amazing...all kinds of lava, petroglyphs, craters....

We arrived back at the Jaggar Museum just after dark and got to see the spectacular show of the gas plumes lit from below by the lake of lava.....

Not a bad day!

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Photos

Kilauea Crater at night
Amazing glow from deep inside....

New digs in Hilo
This is not Big Wave....

Kilauea
First view

Crater
To the left of the active vent

Hike
There are steam vents in the bushes everywhere...you need to stay on the trail!

Orchid
Bamboo orchid...we saw fields of them...but they are not native...

Sulphur Banks hike
Rocks are "cooking"...I hiked this alone in a heavy rain...had the whole trail to myself!

Comments

[Carol and Martin McClain]

National Geographic Day
Wow! I've hiked on lava fields in Iceland, but never got close to anything that was steaming. Great photos! C.