When Pele Smiles, December 22, 2017

Another trip to Pele's new creations is in the books. It was a long hike to the base of the Pali to the former boundary Kipuka. Long and slow, and often painful. This happens to you when you hit the ground in your own backyard but more than hundred trips out to Pele leaves you unharmed. Each step in the dark was carefully placed, I didn't want to take a fall. It's weird to think about it, but it was the first time I ever had a slow trip out to the flow. I usually run across the old lava fields.
The glow in the distance was incredible, each step was getting me closer to my destination. Lightning in the distance offshore, shooting stars above me and a starry sky wherever I looked. I could even see the Southern Cross. It's that time of the year again where it is visible in the Hawaiian skies.
I got closer to the base of the former boundary Kipuka, there were still some trees left, waiting for their final grand finale in bursting up in flames. I walk faster, the excitement starts to kick in. All of a sudden there was no pain anymore, just pure excitement and huge lava rivers coming down the Pali. Pele danced again for me. The heat was incredible, rivers of lava everywhere. I had to be careful not to trip on old A'a rubble down at the base. My camera was running like crazy and I was running from one spot to the next. Trees were bursting into flames, methane explosions. It was an incredible scene. I knew it was worth all the effort, the hike, the pain in between. All of this was soon forgotten at once because Pele smiled at me.
#lava #61g #pahoehoe #lavahike #kilauea

Lava Rivers coming down the Pali

another tree is burning down

Methane Explosions

Pele's Surprise, October 20, 2017

While I was out in the field shooting lava during a quick trip, there was a huge tube rupture happening right in front of my eyes on the Pali. So I grabbed my gear and ran to the base of it. Lava had already reached the bottom and I was rewarded with A'a channels and super hot and fluid pahoehoe rivers that were coming down in a steep spot. I managed to get footage of the flow front of the A'a, it was absolutely amazing. Pele really gave me a great birthday present, I could not have asked for something better.

#lava #pahoehoe #61g #tuberupture #Aalava #lavahike #kilauea#hawaiivolcanoesnps #hnnsunrise #lavariver

Lava October 19, 2017

That's what I saw today while hiking out to the lava. It was a nice day out, lava was pretty active in the field and upslope at the base of the Pali. Cloudy skies and passing showers made it a perfect day to be out, topped by a very vibrant rainbow at the end. The pressure was up and Pele pushed forward this morning, some of the surface flows very extremely hot and fluid. Earlier that morning I measured more than 1600F in one of the breakouts, some spots were probably hotter. It was a nice day to be out and Pele provided some nice flows this morning

#lava #61g #pahoehoe #lavahike

Lava Rivulet

Flow field and night sky

Pele showed me her heart

Me trying to catch the rainbow in the flow field

Lava October 9, 2017

That's what we saw today out at the lava. It was a beautiful day with an amazing sunrise and nice thin wispy clouds. Lava was flowing strong at the base of the Pali with some flows still coming down. My group had a great time and enjoyed Pele's creation. 
There were breakouts at many spots simultaneously and it kept going strong while we were out. There was almost no plume cloud at the ocean entry again, but it could also mean that there was a lot of activity.
I might check with the boat captains. 

#lava #61g #pahoehoe #lavahike

Lava sunrise

view towards the Pali

Lava oozing out

Lava toe close-up

Lava October 6, 2017

When I checked the webcam at 2:30am that morning, I saw that a huge river of lava was coming down the Pali. So I decided to climb up to the Pali and check it out. I literally ran the 3.5 miles up and was rewarded with A'a channels, very hot and fluid pahoehoe rivers and a lot of lava from several tube ruptures. It was almost unreal.
 It was a great early morning up there with a lot of lava and a setting moon around sunrise.
#lava #61g #pahoehoe #lavahike

Pahoehoe Rivers

Tube rupture