Kalapana

I have been living on Hawaiʻi island for 15 years now and I haven't seen lava yet. How sad is that? On my first try a couple years ago, we just saw the "glow". It was okay, but on the walk back, it was horror. No street lights, just a long road. That's not so bad, until you turn on your flashlight and see all the roaches and centipedes crawling all over the road. If you know me, you know that I freaked out. I made up my mind that I would not go again, until recently. It was all over the news, a recent flow down Kalapana. You didn't have to trek far, and the pictures showed people close up to the lava, so close, I bet their eyebrows were singed. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for that. And because it was at a different viewing site, I would take the chance, maybe there wouldn't be any night time visitors. So we waited a few days to go check it out.

Ryan, Kristen, Kallie, and Kristen's cousin Whitney agreed to go along on our adventure. We got some subway sandwiches and headed out. They said the walk was about a mile out. Here is what we saw on our way out.



It was so weird to see houses on lava in the middle of nowhere. Must be dirt cheap, but it's a gamble. One guy was charging people $5 to go to his lānai to view the lava. Gotta make his money while he can.

So we continued on. Still didn't see anything. I thought the lava would be right there. I wanted to hear the crackle and pops. No luck. Every so often you would see a little burst of flame, but no lava. Here we are killing some time.


Tai and Kallie.


Me and Kallie.


Whitney and Kallie.


Kristen, Kallie, and Ryan.


Me and Tai

Hmmm. Nothing. We made most of the bursts of flames that we did see. Held out as long as we could and decided to call it a night. It did get darker, and you could see a little more red out there. Here is the best video I got. Not sure if it was lava or some people making s'mores. Hahaha. You be the judge.