Chrissy's World - Photos 2, Page 8, Lava walk to Royal Gardens

Today we have an exciting adventure for you. Robin and I walked out to Royal Gardens. As you can see from the
Google Earth image, there was an area of Kalapana called "Royal Gardens" that didn't get covered with lava (the green
area with streets still marked out on it). Instead, it got surrounded and nobody can get to it because of the lava all
around it. I wanted to go see it. This involved parking the car at the end of Kaimu Chain of Craters Road (see pages 20
and 21)and walking over the lava up the hill to Royal Gardens, a distance of about 2.5 miles one way. We left around
11:30 AM with an air temperature of around 90 degrees. There was a good stiff wind blowing from off the ocean,
enough so that it could knock you off balance if it caught you in mid-stride. And you definitely didn't want to fall on the
lava!

This is where we're headed

And this is where we started from

There was an iridescence to the lava
that the camera really couldn't capture.

Looking back at where we started.

Looking north at the steam cloud which
you can just barely see on the horizon

Where we're going. Got to keep
checking 'cause there aren't any
landmarks on the lava!

This brown house is to the lower left of
the white house in the photo above right

Strange and interesting patterns in the lava

Checking out the steam cloud

We're aiming for that big tree at the arrow. Looks
like the closest shade and we're pretty hot!

Made it! Under the mango tree.

After a short rest, it was too hard to walk through the underbrush so back out
onto the lava to find... a road! The arrow shows a road intersection

At the road intersection looking east

At the road intersection looking south,
the direction we came from -
somewhere over there by the ocean.

At the road intersection looking west,
where we're going

There's that white house off to the right

And the steam plume

Where we're headed. Is that a stop
sign? No shit!

Robin at the crossroads

Orchid Av and King Av. As soon as I
get home, I'm going to mark that on the
map! And I did. And, as far as I can
tell, the image in Google Earth is
accurate.

Robin at the crossroads. Looking
south

Looking back at the intersection of
Orchid and King as we move on