Our first Christmas Eve at a volcano

Greg and I went to one of the parks at the waterfront recently. 

This is the surface we were walking on at the water's edge. It was easy to recognize the pattern of lava flow from volcanic action.

Today we experienced a little more volcanic action. We visited the nearby area of Volcano, to tour the national park. The volcano here has been erupting since 1983.

The vog (volcanic air pollution) level was low, which was good. Although the photos below are small, they do give an idea of the effect of vog. Both photos are of the same location; the one on the left on a high-vog day, the other on a clear day.

Our first stop in the park was to the steam vents. 

The railing you see is part of what surrounds an open area where steam from the volcano finds its way to the surface. When I walked by there, I was shocked by just how hot it is when that steam hits you. Almost everyone had a similar reaction.

These plants are along the sides of the vent, and you can see how scorched they are near the steam, compared to the bright green where the steam doesn't reach.

We then noticed more areas where steam was coming up through vented areas.

There is an observatory in the park, but it's not open to the public. The park is open 24 hours a day, to allow for viewing of the volcanic action when its dark. The park also runs various programs to educate people about volcanos.

We initially saw the lava lake at the vent at Kīlauea from a distance. It looks like a huge crater. This vent opened in 2008. 

As we walked closer, we were able to see active splattering lava, which reached up to 64 feet today. Getting any closer to molten lava involved a 10-mile round trip hike over lava rock. I'm not that energetic and so am content to instead see a video. Take a look at this volcano overflight video filmed earlier this month.

Generally, the land we walked today was bare, except for some tufts of various grasses. In amongst a small bush, I noticed this flower and just found it interesting.

You may notice in the photo of me today I'm wearing a fleece top and long pants. At an elevation of 4000 ft in Volcano, our high today was about 20ºC (68ºF), and that just feels cool to me now. I'm just not a true Canadian anymore!