Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Kilauea Crater

No trip to the Big Island of Hawaii would be complete without a glimpse of the Kilauea Volcano. I had visions of heading there twice, once on our own and the second time via a Tour to take photos of the Lava Sea Entry. I found out that they open the road at around 5pm and close it at 8pm. Since we were staying in Kona that is a 3 hour drive to the West side of the Island in the dark on a narrow road. It was better to let someone else do the driving. Then I thought to myself why worry about the narrow road in the dark, I'll just drive slower or follow another car's tail-lights. Then I decided to do it all ourselves and just leave early with the plan of arriving back at our home base around mid-night if need be. Little did I know that there would be forces beyond our control to foil our best thought out plans. All I could think of was those lava pictures with the flaming ribbons of fire entering the ocean. I brought my tripod and had my trusty Canon G10 by my side. Hawaii is twice as big as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined. There is one road which circumnavigates its way all around the Island, with one questionable road about a third of the way from the top (Saddle Road) , which is forbidden to take rental cars on. The plan was to take the southern route East, then the northern route Westbound back to Kona. Give or take half an hour, it is around 3 hours each way. We finally find ourselves at the boundary of the Park

IMG_2425

It was an uneventful drive except for the fact that I have to stop at all viewpoints and take detours down every interesting road, or snap photos of signs and other unusual things. Needless to say the 3 hour drive turned into a 5+ hour drive. If there is not much room on the shoulder of the road to stop safely, then I don't

IMG_2428

We stop at the first viewpoint to catch our first view of the crater. It is spewing out a sulphur cloud. The wind has change direction and now it was headed our way. Not hard to breathe but when you do it makes you cough

IMG_2439

I noticed this Harley rider & passenger earlier. What luck to find his bike here so I could take a photo of it. In the more populated areas around Kailua-Kona I notice a lot of scooters but few bikes and what bikes I see are mostly rentals from tourists such as ourselves.

IMG_2436

I also notice that this is a World Heritage Site

IMG_2434

We finally make it to the main viewpoint, closest to the crater

IMG_2444

There are warning signs everywhere warning you of the bad air quality, especially for old people like us

IMG_2445

Some smaller tour groups arrive and we are soon surrounded by tourists taking photos of the sulphur cloud spewing from the crater. Soon we are all coughing and have to retreat inside the Thomas A Jaggar Museum where the doors are closed and the air conditioning ON.

IMG_2450

After about 10 minutes our coughing subsides and we think we are brave enough to go back out and snap a few more photos only to find the Overlook CLOSED .

IMG_2458

I mosey over to the caution tape and see the Park Ranger taking air quality measurements

P1000291

We chat for a few moments and I ask if I can take his photo, so he poses for me

P1000292

He told me he "I smiled for the camera" . I looked at him and said I noticed and thanked him .

The upper rim road goes to the Jaggar Museum and they have CLOSED the Chain of Craters Road at this point

P1000289

With no access further down and no lava entry there were no photos to be had. Also the Sulphur cloud made for a very misty day, which was getting worse by the minute and the coughing was starting again. We thought best to be heading down the hill up to Hilo for some sightseeing.

IMG_2449
(Final glimpse of Kilauea before we depart)

We get further down the Volcano and noticed this

P1000295

We stop to chat with the Ranger and he told us that they monitor the air quality continuously. I forget the actual units of measurement but it goes something like this. The put out a RED alert as soon as it is 1,000. parts/million (PPM). At 1,000 PPM it is well within the safely limits of humans, as far as breathing the air goes, but during the past hour it peaked at 8,000. PPM and was currently 4,500. PPM . The rule is if the reading remains over 1,000 PPM for an hour, then they close access to the Volcano. We found out later that access to the Volcano was closed all day Sunday, which was originally the day we had planned to visit here. We did get to visit but were very disappointed not to come home with some ocean entry ribbons of fire photos.

10 comments:

  1. I'd be disappointed, too. But breathing noxious fumes isn't my idea of fun, either. I can tell you walking across the lava beds at dusk and seeing the glow from various fissures is an awesome sight. I can also tell you getting lost on the lava field at night is no fun. The Chain of Craters road was open when I was there about 10 years ago up to the point where lava had flowed over the road. Eerie sight, believe me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice pics and write up.
    Sorry you weren't able to visit all the places you wanted to see. You should have picked up one of those air masks though. It looks like they match the crocs! :)

    kari

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Bob,

    Shame they closed off the volcanoes for you, this is the price we pay in a Health and Safety World now.....

    Like Chuck, I had the opportunity to go up an active volcano, Pinatubo on Luzon ısland, Philippines, we could not get to the crater, (Didn't want too lol)too scary, as Chuck said, they are eerie and weird places....maybe next time Bob.


    Cheers,

    Dave....

    ReplyDelete
  4. dude- do what riepe does, make up a story about women's breasts, stick in a picture form wikipedia while everyone is distracted and bob's your uncle.I saw the pink croc you devil.
    oh sorry, wrong blog.
    very nice picture bob- I liked the sky contrasting with the wispy smoke and excellent composition on the fourth picture. what was the f stop?

    ReplyDelete
  5. They probably let everyone else in, just not people wearing one pink croc and one sandal. Did you get extra tired walking around that way?

    What aperature setting do you use for "noxious fumes"? I presume a smaller one.

    Too bad you didn't get the lava shots, though. That would have been so awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice shots Bob. Nice element of danger too with noxious fumes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. wow, tourist destinations with toxic fumes.....and you paid money to go see it? : )

    ReplyDelete
  8. You were as close as you could and should get. Fantastic report. Besides, now you have a good reason to return and complete your visit. Thanks so much for sharing, I enjoyed your travel report a lot.
    Cheers from Winterpeg, and welcome back home, SonjaM

    ReplyDelete
  9. Chuck:

    The ranger told us that there was a new lava flow created around Thanksgiving which diverted everything, and ever since then there has been NO ocean entry. I was dreaming about taking some night shots, but nothing

    BlueKat:

    I didn't realize those masks were pink, otherwise I should have said something to him

    Dave:

    Between closing the volcano and the forest fires around Kona which has ruined all the sunset pictures because of the smog created, it was a mess. It was smoky on all the mountains.

    Mr Conchscooter:

    Those crocs took up valuable luggage space, but I brought them anyway. One day I wore them everywhere and I got used to the stares, I think they were jealous they didn't have a pair

    Irondad:

    I really wanted those ribbon of fire shots, what a disapointment . I had planned a full day for it, even considered paying $88. per person for the night tour.

    Mike:

    The Rangers were concerned that with the Sulphur fumes joining up with your saliva it would create sulphuric acid in your system, and you would be disintegrating from the inside.

    Charlie6:

    The Volcano is a must see, even if you didn't see it you could at least say you were there

    SonjaM:

    Thank you, you are so kind with your comments. I like to explore the unknown. Hope they let you out of Winterpeg before Spring

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Bobskoot:

    There is nothing more aggravating, nor disappointing, than to travel thousands of miles to see something, only to find it closed on your behalf. Yet I am sure the National Park Service has a lot of experience transporting choking, unconscious, or badly burned tourists, who eventually wished they had just purchased the slides at the gift shop.

    I'm sure you will get another chance on another trip in the future. However, if I were a cop in Hawaii, and you got out of a car wearing one croc and one sandal, I'd have the cuffs on you faster than you whistle "Dixie."

    It sounds to me like you had a blast in Hawaii. I'm sorry the cost of renting a bike was so high. Was it the same for scooters?

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad
    Twisted Roads

    ReplyDelete