Chrissy's World - Photos 4, Page 22, Kayak Honaunau & Hookena

Photos 4, page 23

Looking for lava @ Royal Gardens

February 17, 2008

Pu'u O'o from Kaloli

February 18, 2008

I read on the Kilauea update page that lava was beginning to inch down into Royal Gardens so I thought I'd go out to
take a look at it. I took the map provided by the Kilauea update page and overlaid it in Google Earth (see below). Then
I marked where they showed the lava was (red flag labelled "Lava") and entered it into my GPS. I then went out and
tried to get there (green line up, magenta line back). For reference, I've included the track from 12/20/06 which was my
last hike up into Royal Gardens (white line out to East Ka'ili'ili lava ocean entry, pink line up Royal Ave., yellow line to
look at lava flows on the hill, red line back to the car). On that hike, the steepness of the slope and the late time of day
defeated me as I hiked straight up Royal Ave. This time, I thought I'd sort of go around where it didn't seem to be as
steep. As you can see from the map, I didn't make it! It turned out that the hill was still way too steep. I kept going
slower and slower and it kept getting later and later until I finally decided I wasn't going to make it in daylight and turned
around and came back.

The vegetated area is Royal Gardens.
The lava flow is purported to be on the
top of that area. I'm headed up to the
right.

Can you imagine what forces were
involved to create this formation? I
certainly can't. It's like the pressure
from below burst through and lava
gushed out.

A lonely Ohia. These things grow everywhere!

The road ahead. One of the reasons I
turned back.