Halemaʻumaʻu crater sits within the larger Kilauea calera.
Jagger Museum sits on the center of the ridge above Halemaʻumaʻu crater. This view gives an idea of the scale.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Earth Day.’ See more responses here.
My brother has been visiting from England and, a few days ago, we went down to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to check out the scene. The volcano’s last eruption ended in September 2023, and it’s been mostly quiet since then.
We arrived to find the volcano socked in with clouds, but the next morning the skies had lifted and we got some great views. We started at Uēkahuna, a viewing area next door to the Jaggar Museum. The viewing area used to be at the museum, but that was badly damaged during Kilauea’s 2018 eruption and is currently in the process of being removed.
Halemaʻumaʻu crater is a pit crater within the larger Kilauea caldera. By the end of that 2018 eruption, the crater floor had collapsed into a deep pit. A small lake formed at the bottom, but that was boiled away and covered in the next eruption. Subsequent eruptions have continued this process of filling the collapsed pit. I hadn’t been down to view this area for quite a while and I was surprised at how much had been filled in. The whole floor was easily visible from the many viewpoints around the caldera, and while there’s no active lava to be seen, there’s plenty of steam rising.
Volcanic cones, from the last eruption, on the floor of the crater.
Steam rises from cracks in the walls of Halemaʻumaʻu crater.
Ironically, yesterday I got an email from the U.S. Geological Survey announcing that ‘Increased seismicity over the past three weeks, indicates heightened activity. Updates will be provided daily while at a heightened state of unrest.’ In other words, watch this space!
For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.
A view of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. On the left, the flat area with a white line on it, is a section of Crater Rim Drive that slid, intact, into the crater!
Daybreak reveals onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point in April 2016 (Original post here).
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Iconic Places and Spaces.’ See more responses here.
I wasn’t sure what to post for this, but Kilauea is about as iconic as anything on the island, so I thought I’d post some photos from volcanic activity that I’ve seen since I moved here. Captions on the photos with a link to the original post.
Lava from the Pu’u O’o vent reaches the ocean in July 2016 (Original Post here).
A hike to the July 2016 flow revealed surreal scenes like this one (Original post here).
This fire hose of lava was a short-lived feature of the 2016 flow (original post here).
In April 2018, lava in Halema’uma’u Crater spilled onto the crater floor. (Original post here).
My lunch spot with a view of the Kamakai’a Hills and various kinds and colors of lava.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘I’d Rather Be…’ See more responses here.
It had been a while since I went hiking, for various reasons, and it’s something I was missing, something I’d rather be doing. So last week, I headed down to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to try the Ka’u Desert Trail. This backcountry trail has been on my list for a long time, but I had never done it before. For one thing, it’s about as far from my house as one can get on the island. For another, it’s directly downwind from Kilauea Volcano, so when the volcano is active and the trade winds are blowing, gasses blow across the length of the trail.
The latest eruption of Kilauea is currently either paused or over, so gas emissions are much reduced, and last week, the trade winds had given way to winds from the southwest. So off I went.
Signs explain the rich history and geology of the area.Tenacious Ohia trees grow in the lava.Ohia flowers are a magnet for bees……as are the native Ulei flowers.
The trailhead is several miles west of the main entrance to the park, with a strip of parking along the highway. The first mile of the hike is also known at the Footprints Trail. It’s a sort of paved path that threads through ohias to a small building that houses footprints left by early Hawaiians in volcanic mud and ash. Alas, I couldn’t identify any footprints in the display. Shortly after the footprints, the path breaks out of the vegetation into open lava fields. This isn’t a tropical Hawaii walk, this a bleak hellscape Hawaii walk. Or is it?
A view of the Kamakai’a Hills from the trail junction.The trail was rerouted here, from its previous path, for reasons unknown.Cairns mark the trail, some bigger than others.Walking on the trail removes the top, crumbly layer of pahoehoe lava.
The trail ascends gently to the only junction for miles around, at Mauna Iki. To the left is a trail back towards the heart of the park. The Ka’u Desert Trail heads to the right and into backcountry wilderness. Mauna Iki was the site of an eruption in 1919 and the trail traverses the lava fields from this eruption.
A’a and pahoehoe lava flows can be seen side by side.Gold colored ropey pahoehoe lava makes it look even more like ropes!The lava has many weird and wonderful folds and shapes.
Much of the trail is over pahoehoe lava, which is rounded and much easier to walk on than jagged a’a lava. The trail is marked by cairns and single rocks placed alongside it. It’s pretty easy to follow with just one or two parts where attention has to be paid to make sure one doesn’t stray.
Bronze colored lava.Bands of red in the lava.A crack in the trail……revels shades of orange within.Blue and gold lava flow.Colorful and dramatic, but slowly nature returns.Colorful ropey pahoehoe lava next to smooth.Blue lava!The patterns and colors reminded me of Roman mosaic floors.Bold color and markings.Plants gain a toehold in the cracks and provide a splash of different colors.Don’t stray off the trail. There are holes and thin spots everywhere.Bright colors and bold shapes can be seen along a lot of the trail.
It wasn’t far along this part of the trail that I first encountered blue lava. That’s right, blue lava. Who knew? But not just blue. There’s bronze, pink, red, orange, gold, and who knows what. I’ve seen colorful lava on the Puna Coast Trail, but this was more varied and quite wonderful. In places the trail crossed this colorful lava and I felt bad for walking on it, though as I hiked I could see many more patches of color out in the lava fields. It’s not wise to leave the trail since there are many lava tubes, some with very thin ceilings.
This is an out and back trail and I turned around once I reached the Kamakai’a Hills, after about 5 miles. It’s another 2 or 3 miles to the next junction where there is a small cabin.
Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. See more responses here.
The trail crosses one of the fields of colorful lava.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Silence.’ See more responses here.
The current eruption at Kilauea has been putting out a considerable amount of vog. This volcanic haze can make life difficult for people, causing respiratory and other medical complications. But it can also cause colorful skies.
I was driving home from work last week on a day when the vog was heavy and the sky glowed. There wasn’t much wind – another reason the vog has been hanging around – so the ocean was calm. I’d stopped to take photos once, but when I saw this little boat heading for this band of sunlight, I pulled over again.
I’d lucked into a quiet break in the traffic and was far enough from the coast that there was no sound from waves coming ashore or from the boat’s engine. I watched for a while until the boat crossed the glittering band, before returning to my car and heading home.
Recently, for this month’s Becky’s Squares theme of “Walking” (See more responses here), I’ve been posting some local walks. Today, I thought I’d revisit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and one of my current favorite trails there.
The top photo is taken from the Byron Ledge trail which crosses the edge of the Kilauea Caldera to join the Halema’uma’u trail. From this junction, the original Halema’uma’u trail traverses the caldera to the edge of Halema’uma’u Crater. That trail has been closed since 2008 because the volcano has been, and currently still is, erupting there. Kilauea Caldera is large and the eruption is two miles from the trail in the top photo, but I always get a bit of a tingle from walking across the caldera floor so close to volcanic activity.
That’s not the only reason I like this trail though. It arrives at the caldera floor by winding down from the rim though some lovely tropical foliage and a moss-covered cutting through rocks that I always stop and photograph even though it doesn’t change from one visit to the next.
For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.
The Kilauea Iki Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is one of the most popular in the park, but I’ve never found it crowded when I’ve been there. It features two very different environments, the walk around the heavily wooded crater rim and the crossing of the barren lava on the crater floor, about 400 feet below.
Since the trail is a loop, one has to descend the steep crater wall at one end and climb up the equally steep crater wall at the other. At both ends, the trail is heavily switchbacked to make this possible. For the hiker, the positives of this are that the trail is less steep than a straight shot would be, and the switchbacks are good spots to take a break and get a variety of views.
For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/. Posted for Becky’s Squares theme of “Walking” (See more responses here).
January: Hiwahiwa, a male Hawaiian Monk Seal born in 2020, rests at Upolu. Haven’t seen any monk seals since this encounter. (Link)
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘2021 in Your Rear-View Mirror.’ See more responses here. I’ve gone with a favorite photo from each month of 2021, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in.
February: I love hiking at Kiholo Bay. There’s plenty to see and shady spots to rest awhile. (Link)March: Swimming with dolphins! Need I say more. (Link)
April: Another favorite hike, on Pu’u O’o Trail off Saddle Road, and an endemic I’iwi singing its heart out. (Link)
May: This inquisitive Manta Ray kept returning, probably wondering how something so clumsy-looking could survive in the water. (Link)June: I like seeing little creatures, such as this Roseate Skimmer Dragonfly, and I’m thrilled when the photos turn out. (Link)
July: I like palm trees and word play so this was too tempting to pass up for Becky’s Tree Squares. (Link)
August: An instant in the water – a school of Mackeral Scads chased by a Rainbow Runner. They went by in a matter of seconds. (Link)September: These Red-Masked Parakeets are not native, but they’re oh so tropical. (Link)
October: When I have time, on my way to work, I stop at Kawaihae. I might see anything from a glorious sunrise, to a tiny crab on the beach, to these port lights. (Link)
November: Kilauea erupted again so I had to go look. The eruption is still going, but a little erratically these days. (Link)December: A recent encounter and maybe my favorite Hawaiian Green Turtle photo. (Link)
After my recent early morning visit to see the activity at Kilauea Volcano, I did a bit of hiking around the rim of Halema’uma’u Crater. This is a view towards the current active vent.
Graham's Island 