On the Big Island, Mamalahoa Highway is known as the top road. It’s part of the original road around the island. In the 1970s, the stretch between Kaiwaihae and Kailua Kona was supplemented with a new highway along the coast, known as Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway or Queen K Highway.
Mamalahoa Highway travels father inland, up on the slopes of Hualalai Volcano. When it get towards Kailua Kona, those slopes are steep. It’s a big residential area with spectacular views out towards Maui and the sunset. The downside of the location is that anyone living there needs to make sure the brakes on their vehicles are always in tiptop condition.
Posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card. See more responses here.
A lava breakout in a flow from Pu’u O’o covers the old coast road, which is now a trail (here).
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Parks.’ See more responses here.
Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is the best known park on the island. It covers 354,461 acres, which includes, not just the Kilauea area, but up to the summit of Mauna Loa and down the southwest rift zone of that volcano. The park contains 106 miles of roads and 155 miles of marked trails, many of them well off the beaten track.
I’ve hiked a lot in the park, though I doubt I’ll ever cover all the trails, but these photos are from ones I’ve done with links to the original posts for those interested.
On the Pu‘u Loa Petroglyphs Trail (here).Great views on the Hilina Pali Trail, but this one nearly did me in! (here).Puʻu ʻŌʻō from the end of the Nāpau Trail (here and here).Puapo’o lava tube is only accessible on a guided tour (here).Nahuku lava tube is one of the most popular stops in the park (here).Kilauea Iki is another popular trail, across the floor of an old vent (here).Steaming Bluff on the Crater Rim Trail (here).The Jaggar Museum viewing point. The museum has gone but the viewing point just reopened (here).Sulphur Banks Trail (here).Halemauma Trail passes through the woods (here).The Puna Coast Trail features colorful lava (here)……As does the Ka’u Desert Trail (here).A lush valley in the Kahuku section of the park (here).
Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. See more responses here.
This statue in Waimea celebrates the role of paniolos in the region. (Original post here.)
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 195. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A hair salon in Hawi.A Bright-eyed Damselfish and a Red Pencil Urchin.The front of a 1978 Peterbilt fuel truck, not moving fortunately.A fascinating, but rarely seen, Stick Swimming Crab. Original post here.A Bullethead Blenny monitors his territory.An elephant table outside a house on the North Kona coast.
This Gold Dust Day Gecko snagged a moth for lunch.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 194. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A rusty water tank.A cow alongside the road.The Ala Kahakai Trail near Kohanaiki.Too heavy to drink?A Bird Wrasse.An Hawaii Amakihi taking a break.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Flight.’ See more responses here. I finally winnowed a raft of options down to just the birds. Captions on the photos as usual.
A pair of Brown Boobies glide over the ocean.A Black-crowned Night Heron flies over a bay.Hawaiian Noddies navigate high surf.A Pueo takes off……flies over a hillside……and sticks the landing. Different birds, but you get the idea!
The current eruption at Kilauea has been marked by a succession of eruptive events followed by pauses. The more recent of these events have consisted of the volcano putting out some small flows, succeeded by fountaining events with the fountains reaching up to 1,000 feet. I’ve been itching to go down and see this, but the fountaining often hasn’t lasted long. My challenge has been to hear about the activity early and at a time when I can go down. This has not been going well!
Last Sunday, after lunch, I sat down to check my emails and saw the daily USGS update for Kilauea. Apparently, it was stirring again, the 21st episode of the current eruption. I went to the video webcam and saw that it was doing more than stirring. It was launching fountains of lava into the air. Scrolling back on the webcam I discovered that the fountaining had started only 20 minutes earlier.
The 20th episode had been the shortest so far, at 4.5 hours of fountaining. My drive to Kilauea is more than 100 miles, but I figured that even if this was another short one, I’d have an hour or two to see the activity, so I jumped in the car and headed over. I left at 1:30 p.m. and got to the park around 3:45 p.m., finding it under a layer of cloud. The weather had gone downhill since I left and the park was a zoo, cars everywhere, edging around or parked in improbable spots.
Miraculously, I found a parking spot on the north rim of the crater and walked out to see what I could see. The answer was, not much. The weather wasn’t helpful, but the problem, which I suspected might be the case, was that the active vent was close to the north rim and so the activity was largely obscured. The prime viewing area would be a spot on the south rim, but one that was farther away, and low clouds were scudding through the crater. Would anything be visible? There was only one way to find out.
I drove around the crater rim to the other side and found a similarly chaotic parking situation. The park isn’t designed to accommodate parking demands on the scale it was experiencing. Luckily, I found a spot, not that far from the trail I had to take. The trail is actually a road that’s been closed since the summit crater became active in 2008. It’s definitely not usable by vehicles, especially since 2018 when a section of it slid into the crater. The road is still visible on its little island, just a few hundred feet below the rest of it!
The walk in isn’t far, about a mile or so. There was a fair amount of foot traffic, both coming and going. When I got to the viewing area, even though there were quite a few people there, it didn’t feel too crowded. There was a decent view of the erupting vent, a little over a mile away, but it was sadly affected by mist blowing through the crater.
I found a spot, took photos, watched the weather. It looked like it was clearing, then looked like it was getting worse. I was keenly aware of the drive home and that I had to go to work the next day. At one point I decided I’d give it another 15 minutes and if it didn’t improve, I’d head for home. 10 minutes later the clouds had blown through, the sky brightened, and the active vent was clearly visible. The only downside was that the sun was slowly sinking behind the active vent, so the lighting wasn’t the greatest. But I wasn’t complaining.
The visual treat of seeing the activity was wonderful, but there’s also the noise of the eruption, like being next to a busy airport. The fountains of lava in the photos are probably around 400 feet high.
I left the viewing area a little after 6 p.m. and headed for home, getting there around 9 p.m., by which time the activity had already ceased at Kilauea. It ended around 8:30 p.m.. Currently, the eruption is again paused, though the USGS expects the next episode to begin within a few days.
Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. A short walk, but well worth doing! See more responses here.
Lava fountaining during the 21st episode of the current eruption at Kilauea Volcano.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 193. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The top photo is from two days ago, when I finally made it down to Kilauea Volcano to see the latest in a string of eruptions. Hopefully, I will get my photos sorted for a longer post about that in the next day or two.
A bee in the flower of a Cannonball Tree.A Phalaenopsis violacea orchid.A Pinktail Triggerfish.Hapu’u Ferns.Kahili Ginger and raindrops.An old propellor on shore near the boat lauch at South Point.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 192. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Two Reef Lizardfishes .Hibiscus “Blue Bayou.”Chairs in front of Kohanaiki Beach Club.Wasps building a nest.Bees gathering water.A Green Turtle in the waters of Kiholo Bay.
Graham's Island 