August 21st, 2006: Lava Fall!

Aloha,
The lava flow from Kilauea has made the news world-wide, so we HAD to go see it. Not to mention the fact that the new flow was much closer than the old one and involved far less walking!

Thirteen of us set out, making a beeline for the plume of smoke in the western sky. After about 45 minutes, we could clearly see the glow just over the next ridge, but in each direction we turned we encountered recent flows whose warm crust might or might not break under our weight. Keeping to the higher, cooler ridges of lava, we threaded our way to the ocean cliffs. The group split into two: the adventuresome, and the plain crazies. The crazies went over the still-hot-underfoot flows to the west-facing cliff and were met with the sight of a triple lavafall. It sparked and fell down the cliff to rejoin in glowing streams flowing into the ocean.

There's no way to describe in words the light, the sound, the motion; or to express the awe we felt at witnessing primeval creation. We knew we were there at Pele's sufferance, and a loud cry from our friends alerted us that a new stream of lava had opened up between our two groups. We beat a hasty, and thankful, retreat.

On the way back, we stopped by the warm glow of a pahoehoe flow and watched its slow, oozing motion. We sat at the ultimate campfire, surrounded on three sides by glowing rock and lava, and shared our delight at being alive.

Paul