"Our Lava Hike 2001" Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Travelogue by BlueCollar

The sign says:

ATTENTION HIKERS
THE HIKE TO ERRUPTION ACTIVITY IS 3 MILES FURTHER.
DO YOU HAVE AT LEAST 3 QUARTS OF WATER PER PERSON?
DO YOU HAVE A FLASLIGHT AND EXTRA BATTERIES?
STAY 1/4 MILE (400M) INLAND FROM STEAM PLUME.


This is the end of Chain of Craters Road in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. We are just starting our 2.5 to 3 mile hike out over the lava fields with Arnott's Lodge to go see the red hot glowing and flowing lava.

For more safety tips, click here if you want to try it on your own.

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Our group just crossing a recent flow. How can you tell it is recent? Enlarge the photo and you will see the crevice next to the arrow is still glowing orange.

You could not stand long on top of it as our shoes would have started to melt.

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Chain of Craters Road used to cross the entire lower portion of the island here. Pele changed all of that.

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Near a bench collapse.

It is hard to see the old ledge so I placed arrows to identify the edge of the cliff with its 20 foot drop down to the new bench being created. The lava tube deliverying the lava to build the bench was in a spot where we could not maneuver to see it. But you can see the steam and smoke rising from its work.

These benches collapse without warning and have killed people in the process. The warnings linked above must be heeded.

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That's me peeling back the cooled crust.

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We put little copper discs on the lava and pressed them just below the surface. As the metal melted and then caught fire, it burned bright green.

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This is why you need to have a flashlight (a torch as the Aussies say) with extra batteries if you decide to hike on the lava fields at night. Those are my feet by the edge of this crevice which was about 3 feet across. Just imagine the damage your body would suffer if you were hiking out here at night without a flashlight and you happened to fall in there.

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That's me at this very tiny breakout.

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