Hawaii 130 south from Hilo. Keaau, Pāhoa, Kalapana – LAVA.
Notta lotta guidance. Felt risky to skip the traditional National Park viewing area & take a Colorado co-worker’s advice (who lava-walked 2 months prior). Drive south on Highway 130 until the road ends.
Just as the road went dirt, folks dressed in orange directed us to park the SUV in an empty lot & take a FREE shuttle to the end. from there: Walk, bike or bus. Bikes ($15-$25), shuttle Bus ($10), self-hike (FREE).
Shuttle bus, no brainer. Dropped us three-tenths/mile from where everyone starts their hike (trekking over crusty mineral-embedded lava rock, jagged & razor sharp – biking not possible).
Set my compass. Aimed 40 degrees; left of smoke plume 2 ½ miles in the distance. Details.
Remnants of a town lost. 1991, lava slowly engulfed the town of Kalapana. Every house, street, road sign. Unimaginable. Molten lava broke thru the earth & incinerated ALL, literally EVERYTHING.
Hiked over lava past. Black, sharp & crusty – other times: hardened meringue. One of the most AMAZING EXPERIENCES of my life. No words. double WOW amplified. Just the hike itself – WOW.
An hour in, felt the first wave of warmth. Dry heat, like air wafting from an open oven. Cracks of red peeked from between the large blackened boulders/lava rock. More heat. Is this safe?
Ahead, crowd of people packed tightly together. Couldn’t hear words, but the buzz…a rolling wave of WOW. Astonishment. Red lava flowing/erupting from the earth. Oozing molten red, graying within minutes of exposure to the open air. Another wave pushes over the drying gray lava. Again, no words.
Hypnotized. Lost in a long stare – like gazing in a campfire. Mind clears/blank, no thoughts.
Paul pointed to a stream of lava further up the mountain. Climbed on rocks surrounded by more red cracks. Is this safe? MULTIPLE STREAMS of LAVA. Ahead, to the left – and behind us.
Watched the Earth open, jut UPWARD. HUGE rocks listed like the Titanic, slipped into the searing lava. We walked over rocks, now gone – part of the glowing red flow.
Sunset, our surrounding landscape glowed. Beautiful, mesmerizing – then, crazy scary. Reality that we were walking over/around rocks which later sunk into the core of our Planet, became overwhelming.
Flashlights on. Started the return hike. Last bus 9:30pm.
Slower going in the dark. Unsteady trail of craggy rugged rock. Eyes darted ahead, searching/path-finding. Hiked over/around piles of lava rock dropped from molten rivers past. NO defined trail.
Crazy AMAZING experience I’ll never forget.
Late nite, long drive. Back in Waikoloa after 11pm. Lazy day tomorrow, last day in Hawaii. No plans. Came & conquered, ticked off everything. Tomorrow: Sis’ birthday. Pool water & Piña coladas 🌺
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- smoke plume 2.5 miles away
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- day’s WOW shot
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- Is this safe?
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- LAVA!
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- oozing molten red, graying within minutes of exposure
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- Island sunset
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- LOVE these 2 ❤
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- MULTIPLE streams of LAVA
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- FAVE pic!
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- watched the Earth open, HUGE rocks list like the Titanic, then slip into the glowing red flow
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- crazy AMAZING experience
Pāhoa Lava Flow
Big Island tour guide collapses, dies in noxious lava steam clou …
www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/…/noxious-gas-from-lava-flow-kills-big-island-tour-gui…
Feb 1, 2018 – (Image: KALAPANA, BIG ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) -. Authorities are investigating the death of a Puna tour guide who collapsed in a lava field after heavy rain caused large steam clouds to rise from active lava flows. Hawaii County police said Sean King, 51, collapsed at 4 a.m. Thursday while leading …
Hiker dies while viewing lava – Hawaii Tribune-Herald
www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018/02/01/hawaii…/hiker-dies-while-viewing-lava/
Feb 1, 2018 – HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald file photo A sign informs visitors that they have reached the end of the county lava viewing area in Kalapana and … Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com. Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com. PREVIOUS STORY.
Snow? Hawaii?
Not a typo nor a fantasy. Started Tuesday with a 4WD trek UP Mount Mauna Kea, one of Hawaii’s two 13ers.
Mauna Loa, known for its active lava flow. Mauna Kea, the world’s highest telescope. “The altitude and isolation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes Mauna Kea one of the best locations on earth for ground-based astronomy.”
Gonna be a HUGE day – Fire, Ice AND a tropical Waterfall 🙂
Rank Name Elevation Counties
1 Mauna Kea 13,796′ Hawaii
2 Mauna Loa 13,679′ Hawaii
Hopped aboard the Grecos SUV (thanks again Paul for chauffeuring), drove an hour east toward Hilo – our third day travelling the Big Island’s Saddle Road (Hawaii 200), island’s only East-West highway (Kona to Hilo).
First stop: Onizuka Center for International Astronomy, adjacent the Visitors Center. Closed ‘til noon. Stretched our legs, started the 7-mile all-dirt journey UP to Mauna Kea Observatory. Less than a handful of US states with 13,000ft peaks.
Rocky, barren, red Martian landscape. UP UP UP. Patches of last week’s windswept snow remained on the high peaks near the Observatory. Stopped outside each massive structure: the Subaru Telescope, Keck I and II Telescopes, NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility.
After multiple days of tropical humidity, LOVE LOVED my half-hour of high-altitude gusty, thin air. FAAANNNTASTIC!
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- barren Martian-like landscape
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- 13,000ft & SNOW
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- Subaru Telescope, Keck Telescopes & NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility
- Hilo Lunch: organic Kombucha at Sweet Cane Café
- Hilo Highlight: Rainbow Falls in Wailuku River State Park. Short hike, top of the Falls thru a forest of Giant Banyan trees (double WOW) to the Boiling Pots, a succession of big pools formed by slow cooling lava. What a crazy diverse climate!
Evening’s activity? LAVA: the ONE single most thing I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do in Hawaii. And not the possible red glow a mile away, from the deck of a building in the National Park. Pāhoa Lava Flow, tonite’s ranger-free private-land molten lava experience.
[Too early in the afternoon to head to the south coast. Most impressive after dark.]
Filled our lava ‘wait’ time at Mauna Loa. NOT the massive peak ‘cross from Mount Mauna Kea…rather, Mauna Loa, Hawaii’s #1 Macadamia nut manufacturer. Factory tour, garden walk – FREE samples at the gift store. No money, lotta flavours.
Did I say FREE? Reality: Tasty & super addictive. ALL of us dropped cash here. LOL>
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- organic Kombucha
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- Rainbow Falls
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- short hike ‘bove the Falls
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- maze of Giant Banyans
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- Banyan GIANT
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- the Boiling Pots
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- sugar cane
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- Hawaii’s #1 nut
Rainbow Falls (Waiānuenue)
Can’t travel to Hawaii & not do a Sunset Luau. Every tourist does it – every tourist should. AND it’s Sis’ BIG birthday (ok, technically she’s got 2 more days).
Watched them dig out tonite’s LUAU PIG, wrapped in banana leaves, cooked traditionally under 2 feet of sand. FANTASTIC experience – missed on my first luau.
Buffet style feast, Polynesian dancing & FIRE. (PLUS an open bar. Ash might have out-drank her admission fee, good to be 27 🙂 LOVE LOVE this kid!) SUPER FUN nite!
Happy 5-0 Sis. Cleaned up pretty good after the hike. Hope your kids spoon-feed you something amazing on your next 50th (‘cause I won’t be there, little Sis ❤)
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- wrapped in banana leaves, traditionally cooked under 2 feet of sand
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- FAMILY Luau ❤
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- Happy Birthday Sis!
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- Hawaiian Hula
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- Maori Haka
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- Sunset Paradise
Sunset Luau 🌺
