Lava Spillage
Today was an attempt to go swimming...but it turns out there's little in the way of swimming beaches in or near Hilo. We gave it a shot and ended up wading in whats essentially the kiddie pool. Its a lagoon that has had a pile of rocks dumped along the open end, so water can flow in and out but leaves it a nearly totally still pool to wade in. It got all of top of the thigh deep, but it was also low low tide from what someone there said. The one other place we tried was a bust..completely rocky with about a 20 foot wide section of sandy-rocky entrance.
After that we gave up and came back to shower off the salt and change for the volcano again(where the lava vents to the sea and where the park and calderas are are miles apart and on different roads). We swung though a store to get a small backpack to use as a stuff sack while we hiked across the lava to the observation point. After a quick lunch we headed off to the end of Highway 130 to see what we could see. Heading down the road you reach about mile 21 where you hit the mobile command post(it moves so much they have to have it mobile) and the end of the pavement. They've graveled up a path that leads up over the lava that covered the road and gets you over the first tongue back onto a bit of pavement. Then there is another small tongue that they do the same on, followed by a rather large stretch over lava that has to be atleast a mile across. You can see houses that were not destroyed by the most recent flows that are completely isolated...no access to them. There are some that have had gravel and small abouts of fill used to lay down a single lane to a residence so they can have access. Once you get across that you end up back on the road, but it ends almost immediately. They've painted out parking lines on the shoulders and guide you in(and have you back in incase they need to evac quickly) and have an espresso van, a lava marble vendor, a t-shirt stand, and a guy that photographs the volcano and sells prints. Based on what I saw of his work, he spends a LOT of time out there, and has much longer lenses than I do. He had some really good work though.
We initially walked the 3/4s of a mile out to the observation point from the parking area at about 430...it was a very flat stark environment. Black to gray rock, rolls of hardened lava, small painted road lines(about a foot long by standard wide) and markers guiding you across the rock to the big barricaded off area that comprised the Observation Point.
The sea entry point was black rock and billowing white steam. Very stark contrast and very severe. We looked around a bit and talked with the CD observer, and decided to go back to the car and have a snack and read a bit before coming back with the tripod.
We got back out at about 6:45 and found a spot with a relatively unobstructed view(except when someone would stand at the edge of the barricade in the middle of the area..that put a head in my shots) and almost immediately started seeing glowing lava in bits here and there. As it got darker we saw more and more, but the shots were getting longer and longer and I made the mistake of dialing the ISO up to 1600. Gonna have to see if I can borrow some time with someone's copy of Noise Ninja and see what it can do for it. We did see some fairly cool outbursts..nothing too dramatic but interesting nonetheless. It seemed like the most active times were whenever angie_di was on the tripod though...guess Pele likes women more than men.
We finally decided it was time to head back. I stopped by the CD Observer's tent and discovered that he was using a pair of binoculars as a longlens for his little point and shoot...I was amused at the ingenuity of that. I showed him a hew shots I'd taken and he was really impressed with them(This was before I saw them on a bigger screen and realized they'll need work)...I guess if you manage to impress someone that sees this day in and out you are not doing bad.
After that we gave up and came back to shower off the salt and change for the volcano again(where the lava vents to the sea and where the park and calderas are are miles apart and on different roads). We swung though a store to get a small backpack to use as a stuff sack while we hiked across the lava to the observation point. After a quick lunch we headed off to the end of Highway 130 to see what we could see. Heading down the road you reach about mile 21 where you hit the mobile command post(it moves so much they have to have it mobile) and the end of the pavement. They've graveled up a path that leads up over the lava that covered the road and gets you over the first tongue back onto a bit of pavement. Then there is another small tongue that they do the same on, followed by a rather large stretch over lava that has to be atleast a mile across. You can see houses that were not destroyed by the most recent flows that are completely isolated...no access to them. There are some that have had gravel and small abouts of fill used to lay down a single lane to a residence so they can have access. Once you get across that you end up back on the road, but it ends almost immediately. They've painted out parking lines on the shoulders and guide you in(and have you back in incase they need to evac quickly) and have an espresso van, a lava marble vendor, a t-shirt stand, and a guy that photographs the volcano and sells prints. Based on what I saw of his work, he spends a LOT of time out there, and has much longer lenses than I do. He had some really good work though.
We initially walked the 3/4s of a mile out to the observation point from the parking area at about 430...it was a very flat stark environment. Black to gray rock, rolls of hardened lava, small painted road lines(about a foot long by standard wide) and markers guiding you across the rock to the big barricaded off area that comprised the Observation Point.
The sea entry point was black rock and billowing white steam. Very stark contrast and very severe. We looked around a bit and talked with the CD observer, and decided to go back to the car and have a snack and read a bit before coming back with the tripod.
We got back out at about 6:45 and found a spot with a relatively unobstructed view(except when someone would stand at the edge of the barricade in the middle of the area..that put a head in my shots) and almost immediately started seeing glowing lava in bits here and there. As it got darker we saw more and more, but the shots were getting longer and longer and I made the mistake of dialing the ISO up to 1600. Gonna have to see if I can borrow some time with someone's copy of Noise Ninja and see what it can do for it. We did see some fairly cool outbursts..nothing too dramatic but interesting nonetheless. It seemed like the most active times were whenever angie_di was on the tripod though...guess Pele likes women more than men.
We finally decided it was time to head back. I stopped by the CD Observer's tent and discovered that he was using a pair of binoculars as a longlens for his little point and shoot...I was amused at the ingenuity of that. I showed him a hew shots I'd taken and he was really impressed with them(This was before I saw them on a bigger screen and realized they'll need work)...I guess if you manage to impress someone that sees this day in and out you are not doing bad.