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....