Up and Down the Mountain Max had his first official field trip last week: a hike and Egg Hunt at Bird Park, which is a cute little area near the Kilauea Volcano Park. A few days later we went back to see the Halemaumau vent and did the mile-long nature walk through the kipuka (old-growth area).

Max was having great fun hiding in the tall grass and stalking his parents.


The pavilion/picnic area was surrounded by a stand of Koa trees, with fuzzy yellow flowers.


Wonders of Nature

	The baby bunnies have been a big hit at school, as you can imagine.
	This is the venting gas seen from the Volcano Lodge lookout (and slightly enhanced to reduce the effects of the fog and rain). We couldn't get much closer because the air quality goes down pretty quickly as you move around the crater rim.
	There were a couple of places on the kipuka trail where we saw ohia trees joined together like this. Below, some other sights from the trail: Lichen and some cute little buds (which open into flaming red-orange blossoms)

  ¶ Saturday, March 22, 2008 0 comments

  Lava! The Big News on the island recently has mostly been about the new lava flows finally making their way to the coastal plain and to the sea someplace where people can actually get to them! Naturally, lava is a big part of our tourist draw, plus being fun for locals.

Today was the first day that the county officially opened the viewing access road. We didn't make it down there for the blessing and opening, but we got there a few hours later. The crowds were pretty thick, of course, and the aerial tourism, too. They were letting us get awfully close...
Here's a view of the marked path, looking back from near the end. As you can see, it's not an easy walk, though it's mostly smoother pahoehoe, so we didn't have a lot of trouble.

The path roughly paralleled a flow -- not the one that's reached the sea and is forming a delta bench, but a separate finger nearer the old road we were using for access -- which was mostly crusted over on top but still oozing and still moving forward. At the very end of the viewing area, the main action was watching ohia trees burst into flame as the flow engulfed them. The glowing cracks were neat, but the coolest bit was definitely spotting the little breakout flows and seeing moving lava for the first time.

The lava field we were walking on is a relatively young one. Near the end of the viewing area I spotted a lava tree! Well, more likely a lava telephone pole or lava fence post, but it still had the scorched wood in it and the neat cylindrical shape.

We got there a bit before sundown, so by the time we were headed out, it was getting dark. Of course, in the dark you can see the glows better, though it's harder to take pictures....
  ¶ Saturday, March 08, 2008 0 comments