Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Last month I visited Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. The first day’s visit I was with friends and we stopped at several of the overlooks to see the Kilauea Caldera, overlooks of the Kilauea Iki crater, and a walk through the Thurston Lava tube. At the time, areas of active lava flow were not near access points that would allow visitors up close views.

More pictures from the volcano's park are HERE.

Normally there is a road open that completely circles the Kilauea caldera, but half of it was closed due to the toxic fumes that are coming out of the volcano. The caldera itself was huge, and difficult to convey the size in the photographs. For example, the hole seen in these pictures spiting up steam is called the Halema`uma`u crater which only occupies a small part of the caldera. In recent years this crater had become more active, and red glow coming out of the crater can apparently be seen at night. Unfortunately I did not make it to see that part at night.

I came back on my own a couple of days later and drove down the Chain of Craters Road. The road travels through a vast lava rock field and is dotted with many inactive craters. The dates on the signs indicated many of these craters were actively spewing lava within the last 15 to 30 years. The areas within the park affected by lava flows appear to change rather dynamically year to year.





There were signs all over warning us to keep windows rolled up in smog-like conditions which might have high suffer content from the volcanoes and in some places the signs warned not to stop for long. There were rain shows rolling through the area and so it was sometimes hard to tell the Volcano smoke from the rain mist. There was one point where we could see an old road, next to the current road, had been covered by prior lava flow. In the distance we could see the steam rising where lava from the Pu`u `O`o crater flow entered the ocean.



Towards the end of the road there was a ¾ mile trail to a field of ancient Petroglyphs carved in the lava rock. These were well preserved. I had to wait for some rain showers to blow through before I could get some decent pictures.



That evening, I went to an observation point set up by the county outside the park to see the lava flowing into the sea at dusk. Although only a few miles from the Petroglyphs as the crow flies, it was a 30 mile round trip to get around the lava flows. I drove to a road until reaching the point where a lava flow had covered the road some 18 years before. Then everyone parked along the roadside and we hiked a half mile over a well marked trail to an observation point by the sea. It was a little more than a half-mile from the point where lava from the Pu`u `O`o crater vent flows into the sea. Upon arriving, I realized I was missing the screw to attach the tripod mount to my camera, so I would have to use the mono-pod instead.

There was a constant stream of steam rising from the water’s edge. Occasionally we could see chunks of black rock being thrown up along with the steam. As the sun went down, we could begin to see the red glow from the lava reflecting off the rising steam. As it got darker, the chunks of rock that previously appeared black we could see were really glowing red. There was also lava flows visible on a hilltop in the distance. Apparently the lava on the distant hill fell into underground lava tubes which resurfaced a few miles later where the lava entered the water. Even with the mono-pod, I could not keep the camera still enough for the long exposures this scene would require, so I decided to come back the following night if I could find the pieces to use the tripod.





The next day, I went back to the Kilauea Iki crater and hiked the trail that went across the crater floor. There were steam vents all over that were venting steam. The rock was only a little warm to the touch. A light rain shower came through, and when the rain hit the warm spots, it created more steam making some of the smaller vents more visible for a few minutes.




After the hike, I went into Hilo for lunch and to do some much needed Laundry after a week and a half on the Big Island, and then I returned to the nighttime observation point. I found a screw that fit the tri-pod and so was able to take longer exposures that captured the red glow better with a lower ISO setting for sharper picture. However, there was not as much of the lava chunks being splattered around this second night.

This next set of pictures shows how the scene and lighting changed as the sun went down:










I left the observation point for the two hour drive to Kona. I had an early flight to Maui the next morning. I opted not to stop to try and get night pictures of the Kilauea volcano as I am sure that would have taken an hour, and I was getting pretty late and could feel the windy drive would already be difficult when I was tired. I regret missing that, but I really needed some sleep at the time.

More Pictures from Volcano National Park HERE.