Hawaii (1) — Lava!
2017 12/19 – 2018 1/5: sunny, cloudy, some short rains and rainbows
in the new year, wish you live free and open as the Pacific!
Hiking for Watching Flowing Lava
Big island has the most active volcanoes on earth. In the past, there are a lot of boat tours taking you to see the red lava flowing into the Ocean. It costs a few hundreds of dollars per person, but if you have family and old people traveling with you, I highly recommend you to do so, as another option to see flowing lava is to hike through lava fields, which is pretty much impossible for people that are not used to strenuous hiking. Also, it should be noted that at some seasons the lava is not able to reach the Ocean, so the boat tours are not always available.
Hiking through the lava fields during night is one of the life changing moments. If you spent 20 or 30 dollars, the local guide will drive a bus or rent you a bike to help you get closer to the flowing lava. The local guide is nice almost like a volunteer organization, not commercial like Waikiki at all, and they will give you a flash light, a bottle of water and a bag pack if you need one (I had some scratches from a fall during hiking, they have first aid facility too). The lava field is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen. We arrived the lava site around dusk. On the left, it is the blue Ocean; on the horizon, there are different shades of sunset, red, yellow, pink, orange, blue, green …; on the right side, it is the black lava field with some red flowing lava lit up on the mountains. You see waves and shapes in rocks from pushing and squeezing. In the older lava fields, there are wild flowers and green grasses growing stubbornly from the cracks. I leave a bad picture here so that you will be surprisingly impressed when you see it in person one day :p
After 2 or 3 miles of bus or bike ride, you need to hike another 3 or 4 miles till reaching the flowing lava. It starts to get dark and you will be only able to see where your flashlight lits. The hike is just wild in that there are no trails but only the red lava in front of you that guide you the path. So some headlight will be useful. Night hiking is thrilling. I like the stars, the moon, the breeze and the vast of darkness around you that make you feel at peace. It also reminds me of my high school time when a group of good friends went out for night hikes and then sat in the tent to chat until sunrise.
As you are getting closer to the flowing lava, your shoes and feet start getting hot, so make sure you wear some not-easy-to-melt shoes 🙂 The flowing lava is pushing from the red rocks, and makes the sizzling sound. You feel the radiation heat swirling in the air. I was screaming during the hike for my excitement of seeing lava from faraway. But right now when I am so close to it and listen to it, only the silence dignifies the moment and the touchingness.
On the way back, the hiking is more difficult. There is no light to tell you where is the destiny, and when you are going to reach the finish line. You occasionally see somebody over there, and you are not sure whether they are on the correct paths, you are on the correct paths, or both of you are on the correct paths 🙂 The local guide promises to pick you up after your hiking is over only if you can come down by 9pm, yet there are still people who is hiking up to see flowing lava when we came down; sometimes we joked with them “it already runs out”, sometimes we worried about them, “oh, that poor family definitely cannot make down by 9pm”. For a quick hike, you will prepare to start the hike around 6 or 6:30pm and finish around 8 or 8:30pm. For a slow hike, you will prepare 4-5 hours.
Note some details above for my future visits and hopefully they are useful for your preparation of trips to Hawaii as well.