Photos 3, page 8
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Lava Ocean Entry - Real Lava!
| February 12, 2007 |
| Today I was determined to hike all the way out to the East Lae'apuki ocean entry which was the entry that Robin and I had first hiked to on the ocean entry. I wanted to go see. I left around 1:00 PM to give myself plenty of time to get out there and get situated before dark. Trip out (4.26 mi., 3 hrs.) = white line, while there (1.09 mi., 3 hrs.) = yellow line, trip back )(3.94 mi., 3 hrs.) = red line, total 9.29 mi.. Start 1:00 PM, end 10:00 PM, 9 hrs.. Again, the roads shown above do not exist, they are covered by lava. Click map images to enlarge. |
| (4:13:43 PM) This lava looks normal enough but notice the heat waves coming off it. Watch out! |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Now things start to get interesting as it starts to get dark... |
| (4:12:57 PM) This is where the rope ended - it used to go all the way around the bench area and back to the shore on the other side. I guess they took it down because of the surface lava going through. The light gray lava is new. |
| (5:02:10 PM) ["Wait"] Looking back toward the coast, there's this interesting formation... |
| (5:09:51 PM) A closer look at the normal-looking lava shows some red... |
| (5:19:56 PM) This is a view of the "Wait" spot with my pack and the hot lava field beyond |
| (5:22:44 PM) More people through the heat waves |
| (5:02:56 PM) With steam coming from it... I'm not about to walk across that new lava inside the roped area to look inside! |
| (5:03:26 PM) Some people who came from the other side distorted by the heat waves. |
| (5:07:24 PM) Another group... |
| (3:48:55 PM) This is the "bench" that has built up over time from the lava flows. Robin & I were on the other side of this last August. |
| (3:43:01 PM) My first encounter with the rope. |
| (3:49:16 PM) This is a view of the sea wall - the coastline before the bench was created. You can see how the lava flowed over the edge. |
| These are close-ups of the path I took once I got there. First, I encountered the rope that is put out by the National Park Service to keep people out of the danger area at the East Lae'apuki lava zone. I followed the rope down to the coast, then followed it back inland until it ended (4th picture in this sequence). You can see my path as I encountered the hot lava and turned back, often marked by "Hot" and "Lava". As you will see from the photos, the hot lava was not necessarily immediately visible - it just started getting really hot as I walked along and decided it would be best not to go there! A very dangerous situation! The spot marked "Wait" was where I left my pack, sort of a home base, as I explored around to find the best locations to take pictures from as it got dark. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
| (5:21:54 PM) A view of the coast through the heat waves. Lots of heat waves! |
| (5:24:10 PM) Another view of the "Wait" spot with red-hot lava in the upper right corner. I'm parked pretty much right on the edge. |
| (5:31:43 PM) The following photos were taken at the location marked "Lava" at the very northernmost portion of my track above. I walked right around the "Lava Photo" location without seeing it. That came after dark... |
| As you can see, the hot lava is not all that apparent in daylight. It would be easy to just walk right into this stuff if you weren't paying attention! These pictures, by the way, were taken without zoom. I was close enough to poke my hiking stick into it. The outer surface was sort of doughy, then my stick would poke through and red hot lava would leak out the hole and my stick would catch fire. |
| 5:39:52 PM) MOVIE (37.10 MB) Click image to download |
| (5:40:39 PM) MOVIE (37.94 MB) Click image to download |
| (5:42:02 PM) MOVIE (70.67 MB) Click image to download |
| 6:212:44 PM) MOVIE (35.96 MB) Click image to download |
| (6:35:24 PM) MOVIE (57.06 MB) Click image to download |
| (6:36:39 PM) MOVIE (17.43 MB) Click image to download |
| (5:31:58 PM) |
| (5:36:43 PM) |
| (5:36:49 PM) |
| (5:43:44 PM) |
| (6:09:02 PM) |
| (6:10:01 PM) |
| (6:27:35 PM) |
| (6:28:41 PM) |
| (6:31:26 PM) |
| (6:22:56 PM) |
| (6:23:59 PM) |
| (6:15:04 PM) |
| (6:15:58 PM) |
| (6:20:43 PM) |
| (6:37:37 PM) |
| (6:38:03 PM) |
| (6:38:19 PM) |
| (6:35:15 PM) |
| (6:31:51 PM) |
| (6:32:56 PM) |
 | |  | |  |