If you’re traveling to the Big Island of Hawaii, then you don’t want to miss the enthralling opportunity to see flowing lava fields. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but seeing lava on the Big Island turned out to be one of the best experiences I had in my life!
There are very few places on Earth where you can see active lava in person. And even fewer where you can walk right up to it. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and has been continuously erupting since 1983. Most of the time, the lava flow is slow and calm and by following proper precautions it’s relatively safe to get up close to it.
There are three ways to spot lava: hiking with a guide or by yourself, or taking a helicopter tour. Just bare in mind that helicopter tour doesn’t give you the opportunity to have a close encounter, let alone stepping your foot on the boiling ground.
Feeling adventurous as ever, me and other three likeminded lunatics decided to look for lava ourselves, meaning we will trek the endless lava fields.
Yesterday, we’ve been soaking in geothermal baths and this morning we would be standing next to scorching hot Hawaii lava trying to keep our shoes from melting.
Kalapana is the best point to start the hike. It used to be home to a fishing village but in 1986 lava started flowing out of the Kilauea volcano and ended up destroying Kalapana. When you arrive here you’ll be standing on the freshest earth you’ve ever set your foot on.
One thing you have to remember, that no one is guaranteed to see lava when they come here. The location of the lava flow and amount of it changes daily. If you do get to see flowing lava, you should consider yourself pretty lucky. For me, seeing the lava fields is also a reminder of the unstoppable force of nature.
We’ve started our hike around 10am and were informed by the guards that yesterday lava was spotted about 5miles from the trailhead. However, they can’t tell you exactly where nor if it’s still running. All we knew was to look for circuiting helicopters. Asking how do we know we’re near they replied: ‘don’t worry, your body will tell you’. And oh boy my body did. It was actually screaming to get the hell out of there.
There are two lava types on Big Island; a’a and Pāhoehoe. A’A is characterized by a rough or rubbly surface composed of broken lava blocks and is sharp to walk on. Pāhoehoe on the other hand has a smooth, billowy, undulating, or ropy surface. Whole hike consisted walking on both but active flow we saw later on was Pāhoehoe.
It took us around four hours to find active lava flow. Hike involved going in circles, climbing huge old lava stones and poking every suspicious cringe in the ground. As apparently, it often flown under your feet.
Lava sneaks up on you unexpected. With the wind blowing hard, you can’t feel the heat until you are right next to it. And when we saw a big heat wave in front, we realised it’s all around. A few times, as we stepped over cracks we could even see a red glow and feel the heat coming up through. Every step we took we could hear the fragile new earth crumbling beneath. It was like walking on glass. That’s when panic kicked in- it’s everywhere! I still can’t see it but I can definitely feel it. Being surrounded by lava is unsettling. The air is hot all around you. You can feel the heat coming up through the soles of your shoes.
In the distance, there was a huge active lava river. From first glimpse it seemed to blend in but it radiated an extreme heat and started breaking out from nowhere. We came as close as a meter away where the heat was unbearable.
It turns out the ground we were standing on was a day old. It was super crunchy and still considerably warm. It’s not just the red stuff that’s hot. The silver formations around was in a red form just a few minutes ago and is still boiling hot to burn your feet off if stepped on. I even poked lava with a stick to see how long it takes to harden after I pulled it out. My experiment results showed, that it only takes 2minutes!
After spending about half an hour next to lava, I started feeling lightheaded and faint, which was a sign of inhaling too much poisonous gasses. We quickly wrapped up and were on the way finding our way out.
I’m very glad we started this hike early enough, as coming back took almost same time as getting here. Sun started to set and we made it to gravel road just in time before the darkness. Some people do this trek at night, as lava looks incredible at dark but honestly, I can’t even imagine doing such a difficult hike with a flash light.
Have you been to the Big Island? Did you see the lava, if so, what was your experience?
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