Time for another volcano run.
I had skipped or even aborted going to several recent episodes as conditions looked bad. When Episode 42 looked imminent, I was packed and ready to go. Then I looked at the winds… From the south. I aborted before ever leaving the house. A good decision, it rained rock in the main section of the park and on the viewpoints, thus the park and the highway were quickly closed.
Episode 43 occurred in heavy rain, while episode 44 was a repeat of 42 with tephra blowing to the northeast, prompting the park and highway to be closed again. Based on the chatter, I think most of the volcano junkies on-island were feeling a bit of frustration.
With another eruptive episode looking likely, I put my boss on notice that I might just collect that day off I was owed. Waking to a 2 am alarm, I rolled over, grabbed the iPad and checked the USGS webcams… We have a go!!
The usual plan was delayed just a bit… Arriving in Hilo, I needed gas, and the Puainako station I thought was open all night was not. I had to go into town to find a 24-hour gas station to fuel up, by which time I was running on fumes.
A full tank had me off to the park and the surreal experience of driving up a highway lit red by the large glowing clouds overhead.
The next delay occurred when I found the Devastation trail parking lot full to overflowing, with multiple cars orbiting the lot and folks getting “creative” in their desperate efforts to park. I went immediately to the backup plan, driving to the Puʻupuaʻi parking lot. This relatively unknown viewpoint has a quiet parking area and is connected to the Devastation Trail parking area by a half-mile paved path. It adds a few minutes to the walk, but there were only about six vehicles in a 30-space lot, compared to the mayhem occurring at Devastation.
As I gathered my gear, I was pleasantly surprised by a bright, glowing lava bow overhead. The red light of the eruption serving as the light source for a fogbow in a wall of mist overhead, resulting in a bright red bow. Unfortunately, the bow faded before I could get the camera ready, but it was an impressive phenomenon.
The walk to the eruption in the cool morning was again surreal and enjoyable. The red glowing clouds lit the trail, aside from darker spots in the heavy woods, I did not need a flashlight.
I stopped here and there to take additional photos. This was the plan for this episode, I carried a lighter loadout than usual, looking to concentrate less on the lava fountain and more on the entirety of the scene. This plan worked well, and I stayed mobile, taking photos of the eruption and the eruption crowd as I wandered.
Episode 45 featured a relatively short fountain, “only” about 800ft high most of the time. From the vent, a lovely lava flow fanned out across the caldera floor.
I ran into a few other lava junkies in the morning. We compared observations and recalled past episodes. A common subject of conversation was the changing landscape around the vents. The changes are remarkable: the building puʻu above the vents, the rising level of the caldera floor. The volcanic edifice around the current vents is strikingly similar to Puʻupuaʻi, the cinder cone built during the 1959 Kīlauea Iki eruption in a very similar episodic series of tall fountains.
As planned, I stayed mobile using my knowledge of the park to locate parking at lesser-known places. Really, just avoid trying to park at any viewpoint that has a direct view of the eruption, and you can find parking, if with a short walk instead.
Arriving at a viewpoint near the military camp, I witnessed the end of the eruption. The end of these episodes is just as curious as the start, appearing as if some menehune is cranking down a really big valve. The eruption just gets smaller and smaller, and then stops… Quickly and cleanly in the span of just a few minutes.
Episode 45 was over.
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