We poke lava with a stick!

Early in the morning we drove to Kalapana (about a half hour away, on the southern coast) with the goal of getting close enough to lava to poke it with a stick.

 This blue house was our starting point. The owners built it as a B&B.  The lava flows here are from 1990.

The view as we hike away from the house.

Pahoehoe, or rope lava.

The scorched remains of a two-story house that belonged to a friend of our guide and was overrun by a lava flow.

Giant rainbow (see house in foreground for scale)

Double rainbow

Our guide, Diana, and Tyler hiking over the a'a lava field with our walking/poking sticks.

Fresh oozing lava.  It's hot enough to glow bright red even in direct sunlight.

You can really feel the intensity of the heat coming off the molten rock. It solidifies surprisingly fast though.

Lava flowing into the ocean

Steam where lava and water meet

Tyler and Diana

 

Diana poking lava with a stick

David making a lava souvenir. The trick is to pull off a glob of molten stuff with your stick. After cooling on the rocks for a few minutes, you have an original lava creation.

Tyler plays with lava.

Layers of minerals in the lava produce different colors

Some houses built on a recent lava field

These are the lava art works that we made.

More photos of the sights during our trek across the lava field can be found here and videos of the lava are here (it was extremely windy on the lava field, and there's a lot of wind noise, so turn down your volume).

Lava Tube Exploring

We went on a tour of nearby Kazumura Cave, which happens to be the longest lava tube in the world. It's over 40 miles long in total, but we only saw a tiny portion.

Flashlights and helmets to protect your head in areas of the cave where the ceilings are low. Cave exploration is an instance where being short can be an advantage.

The entrance

Tree roots grow into the cave.

Last view of daylight as we walk deeper into the cave

The cave is only about 500 years old and the formations are well preserved.

A moment captured in time -- a rock fell into the lava, causing ripples, as the rock solidified.

"Bed of nails" formation on the ceiling

Returning to daylight