I Lava You

Our first full day on the Big Island was all about the volcanoes. Wes has been anxious for a long time to see an active volcano, and he was pretty much in heaven all day long. First stop, Volcanoes National Park. We were actually a little disappointed in the park. Everything was pretty much closed due to the 2018 eruption because the ground is not stable. We understood that part of it, but the visitor's center was the real disappointment. The movie was from the 1980s and horribly outdated. The store didn't offer much at all. It's been a year since the most recent eruption. We thought for sure they would have had some awesome displays, movies or presentations about that, but they didn't have anything. Still, we loved seeing the Kilauea caldera and steam vents. The caldera no longer has fresh lava inside since last year, but it was giant and awesome to see.

After leaving the park, we drove toward the new eruption area. Kilauea erupted from May to August 2018. We hadn't realized until we got there just how enormous the new eruption was. 13 square miles were affected, and 700 homes were destroyed. For Kori and I, it was unsettling and a little creepy and sad. For Wes, it was just exciting to see. We drove through the Leilani Estates neighborhood that we had heard so much about on the news, and sure enough, there's a new cone right there. The road stops and the lava begins and it's massive. Wes blew past the no trespassing sign, he was so excited to see it. Later we took a drive along the coast where we ran into some new lava flow that had just barely had the road cleared out. It was crazy. We were just driving along in this beautiful tropical lush area and then all of a sudden, boom! Fresh lava flow! We were looking for a road to make a loop at one point and the road just dead ended. That road is no longer there. We visited Isaac Hale beach park which used to be a popular surfing spot with a boat ramp. The lava came into the park, almost totally destroying it. With the lava, a whole new black sand beach just filled in the bay. The boat ramp was filled in and the park itself was completely changed. It had just opened back up when we were there. If the black sand stays, it will be another beautiful beach. Just totally different than it had been before. It was kind of crazy to see land that was only a year old. This is an amazing growing island!