Lava!

The lava is flowing baby! Well, it probably didn't hurt that we had an 
earthquake yesterday that registered 4.9 on the Richter scale. They say those 
get the lava flowing. I didn't feel it but they announced it on the radio and I 
read about it on the Volcano National Park website. But man, what a difference 
in climate here. Back in Kona where I had been staying, it was pretty much sunny 
and 80 every day.  Here it looks like it will be cloudy, rainy, windy and foggy 
with highs only in the 60's due to it being at 4000 feet elevation and being in 
a rain forest but man is it awesome! I did a little hiking in the park and 
explored a lava tube which in essence is a tunnel or cave of hollowed out land 
caused by the flow of lava from the volcano. I included a pic of the entry into 
the tunnel. I also included pics of the Halema'uma'u Crater both during the day 
spewing smoke and at night showing the glow of hot lava. The lava is not high 
enough in the Caldera to actually be visible but it's in there! There's also a 
pic of an old crater that used to have lava in it but is extinct now. Then I 
drove outside the park to the lava viewing area along the coast where there's 
some lava flowing on the surface towards the ocean. I could only get to within 
about 2 miles or so of the flowing lava and the pic is the one with some faint 
signs of red lava in the dusk/darkness. The only way you can get right up next 
to the lava to actually poke a stick in it or whatever is to take a guided tour 
and I plan on doing that tomorrow night. It's about a 5 hour hike roundtrip. You 
hike out about 4 PM or so to get to the lava right around sunset while it's 
still light to see the lava and then hang out until it gets dark to capture 
photos of it a night. But then you have to hike back across old lava in the dark 
with flashlights for 2.5 hours!! Should be quite the adventure! Wish me luck. If 
you don't get a blog update tomorrow, I got crazy and got too close to the 
lava!! Hope to "talk" to you tomorrow. Hope everyone's week is going well so 
far. 
 
Jeff