After nearly two years of mostly predictable eruptions, Kilauea decided to get weird in her 55th eruptive episode, so the volcanologists are unsure of exactly what the volcano will do next, and when it will do it. Despite being the inaugural visitors for this new eruptive pattern and missing out on the huge lava fountains associated with recent eruptions, we were still lucky to be here when the volcano decided to open a new vent on the crater rim; after several hours at the main vents late last night we decided to make one stopoff before leaving to get a view of whatever had been causing a glow just below our vantage point, and discovered a new river of lava pouring down the crater wall (pictured on the right below). A local man arrived at our spot shortly after we did; he had apparently seen something odd on the online thermal camera and drove an hour to the park to investigate, and was beside himself with excitement as he explained to us how cool it was to see another lava source spewing liquid rock. Just past midnight we finally returned home, and I diligently woke up every ninety minutes to check the livestreams to see if anything had changed, so when we finally left the volcano today we were happy both that we had gotten to see some really neat stuff, and also happy that we had done everything we could to try to catch the next full eruption.
Aside from volcano watching, we also took a trip up the flanks of Mauna Loa to a viewpoint at 6600 feet yesterday, traversing a one lane road through impressively scenic rainforest and lava flows to a decent view of Kilauea. Today’s journey was from the north side of the island back to the south, with a stop in Hilo to see the banyan trees in their public gardens, and a detour up to the Mauna Kea visitor center at 9200 feet. Fun fact: Mauna Kea’s height when measured from the sea floor is approximately 33,500 feet tall, with 13,803 feet above sea level, making it nearly 4,000 feet taller than Mt. Everest when measured from base to peak.
Now we’re back in Kona at our hotel with the mongooses, feral cats, and waterslide, with plans for scuba diving and dreams of manta rays over the next three days.
