I just got back
from a fabulous hiking trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. What an adventure! When I travel, I prefer physically active
trips, as I have a hard time just standing there and listening to a lecture on
some cultural site like a castle or museum.
I’ll do that for a little bit, but not for the whole trip.
This trip
started out with a 3 flight itinerary to Hilo, Hawaii. When I got there, I was pretty excited to see
several of the astronomical observatories on the top of Mauna Kea from our
hotel. There was also snow on the top,
which was an unexpected sight for sure.
While in Hilo,
I found out that the Kilauea Volcano, which had been erupting off and on since
December 23 of 2024, was currently taking a break.
I was bummed, although my reason for taking
the trip was not to see an erupting volcano.
I had booked way before this current eruption cycle started.
I had visited
the Big Island twice in the mid-90’s for spiritual conferences, and was very
connected to Pele, the Goddess of Hawaii’s Volcanoes. So I started talking to her the next day on
our way up to the Kilauea Military Camp, which was to be our group’s lodging
for the next 3 nights, inside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I explained that I really wanted to see the
eruption and experience her power.
The next
morning, we did a long hike along the Kilauea caldera rim and then down into the
caldera and back up to the opposite side. The one way elevation change was 425 feet, and
it was fairly steep both ways. The
cinder cone from the latest eruption was a little over a mile away. It was smoking pretty heavily. To our amazement, brief flashes of lava could
be seen coming out of its right side.
Wow! Another eruption was
starting! I have often written about the
magic of nature, and we were about to experience it firsthand. I thanked Pele profusely.
At lunch time,
we ate at the Volcano National Park Hotel, a perfect spot to observe the
volcano. At that time the cinder cone
was still smoking heavily and spitting out some lava. This was not actually considered an official
eruption at that point.
There was also
an excellent overlook at the edge of the caldera a short distance from the KMC,
so we trekked out there in the dark after dinner, and that’s when the real
action started.
The next
morning, we did another long hike to the bottom of the Kilauea Iki crater, which takes you
along a different edge of the Kilauea caldera and down 450 feet into the crater next to
the main one where the eruption was happening.
All we could see from there was a huge smoke plume, which was pretty
exciting.
We sped up our pace so that we
could get back to the Volcano Hotel observation area to see the progress of the
eruption.
It was going full force
now.
It was estimated that the height of the eruption at this point was about 330 feet. Here are some photos and a video. To view the videos, go to your browser.
The rest of the
afternoon was spent driving down to the coast to see the extensive lava flows
and hike out to the Pu’uloa Petroglyphs. They are located in a very isolated location,
and it is not known why this spot was chosen for the over 25,000 rock carvings that
are found there.
By the time we
got back to the Volcano Hotel for dinner, bedlam had erupted along with the
volcano! There were cars parked all over
the place along the roads, and the park police were directing the backed up
traffic. Apparently, once an eruption starts,
word spreads down in Hilo, and people jump into their cars to drive up and
look.
The overlook of
the hotel was packed with people. Many
were having cocktails, and it was quite the party atmosphere. It was just getting dark at that time. As we were eating dinner, I popped out
several times to take photos.
Once we got
back to the Kilauea Military Camp lodging, several of us walked out to that
overlook to get a different angle on the eruption.
Almost at the
exact time when we left the area the next day, episode 9 of the eruption had
stopped. Talk about being in the right
place at the right time! I like to think
that my inner conversation with Pele got her to show herself to us.
Remember that
the magic of nature is all around us all the time. It may be a small thing like a butterfly drinking
nectar from a flower, or a big thing like an erupting volcano. Be observant and allow that magic to speak to you!