I’ll be doing a series of posts on traveling in Hawaii over the next few weeks and include some pictures, info on whale watching, snorkeling, volcano watching and general travel information. My best advice if you are going to Hawaii is to visit Wizard Publications and buy the appropriate book for the island you’ll be visiting. These guides are second to none and include a wealth of local information; they’re humorous and contain a lot more activies than a normal guidebook.

Click on the pictures below to view larger images.

Our first stop was to head over to the Volcano side of the island to see if Madam Pele would grace us with the sight of a lava. We were lucky. During the daytime, steam was steady as hot lava hit the ocean. At night, at the bottom of Chain of Craters road in the Volcano National Park, the rangers had set up scopes. We could see the hot glow of lava coming down the mountain with the naked eye, but it was neat to see it through the scope also. After hiking an easy half-mile out across the end of Chain of Craters road (until you reach the spot where lava abruptly ate the road a few years back) there is another ranger scope. This one focused on the lava entering the sea and was worth the trek out there.

The best advice I can give is to plan at least one night near the Volcano park because seeing the lava well requires an evening or early morning viewing. Once the sun is up, the hot lava isn’t nearly as visible. We hiked out across the old lava from the end of Chain of Craters road at about 5:30 a.m. to get closer to the flows. This hike was murderously difficult–rough footing, 3.25 miles, in the dark (with glowing lava up the hill and glimpses of it in front of us) but very doable if you’re in shape. For the first 1/3 of a mile, the rangers had up markers. After that there were beacons every 1/3rd to 1/2 mile. You couldn’t always see the beacons because you had to climb up and down lava piles, but it certainly gave an indication of a general direction.

We arrived at the flowing lava at about daybreak (yes, we had flashlights and no, you could not hike in the dark without them!). The rangers had the most dangerous areas roped off, but of course, things change in lava land so you had better pack and use your common sense! Right at arrival we saw a great spot of red-hot, white-hot flowing lava.

After taking pictures we hiked up the side to see what else we could see. Note that heat comes off these piles. The lava is not flowing in wild, copious amounts; it’s a rather changing, fickle beast. The silver areas are fresh–notice the glowing red underneath. The top of the silver flows “pop” constantly with little flakes hopping off to the tune of crackles and snaps. When a light rain began to fall, the noise got a lot louder–hissing and sizzling entered the fray. It was absolutely fascinating to see.

After a short time–less than fifteen minutes, we headed back to the lava flow we had seen–only to find it…Gone! We had no idea the lava would harden? Change direction? Stop??? in such a short time or we would have stuck around to witness the change! We looked all over, but what we found was some lava flowing farther out.

The entire pile is like a living beast, groaning and edging its way down the mountain. Sometimes cavities form and you see the hot stuff in the crevices. When the timing is just right, you see the lava actually moving and flowing across the surface and back underneath. It’s well worth the walk out there if lava is flowing. Either hike in late in the evening and stay until dark or go in the early morning like we did. At night there were a few hundred people at the end of the road–less made the 3 plus mile hike out. In the morning? We were the only two souls out there…just us and mother nature; the lava, the pounding surf and on the last half-mile on the way back — rain.