See the steam on the hill, this is where the lava flows down and you would probably see a glow from.

Categories: kilauea, volcano, picture, hawaii

This is a weak steam plume from a few years ago - the one now is probably bigger and more impressive.

December Kilauea Lava Update

Nothing really new. If you drive down to the bottom of Chain of Craters Road (a 45 minute drive from the Entrance station within the National Park - so you people coming from Kona, you have to drive about 2 hours to get to the park itself and then another 45 minutes to get to the lava flow, you may want to consider staying getting a rental in Volcano Village) you may get to see some red breakouts far away on the hill that the lava flows down and you may see an orange glow at the steam plume. Day is best for seeing the steam plume and night is best for seeing glows. You can hike over old lava 3/4s of a mile to a steam plume viewing area and you will probably be able to see a bit better, but the plume itself will still be over 2 miles away.

Hiking to the plume itself is not an option right now because the bench may fall into the ocean again, but a very hard 2 mile walk will get you closer to the plume and maybe afford you better glow and breakout views.

Oooh, an Earthquake Swarm

The update from around dawn this morning says there were 16 earthquakes yesterday and today between magnitude 3 and 5 in the Loihi area (loihi is the newest Hawaiian island, still underwater, but constantly being built by the volcano). That's a lot of earthquakes, but I haven't felt any of them. Earthquakes are constant here, but always notable because a lot of them means the volcano is acting up somewhere.

There is a 'glow' visible from the end of chain of craters road after dark (6 pm). You can walk 1/2 mile on the road and several hundred yards on the old lava to a viewing area and maybe see a steam plume or lava entering the ocean, but its 2 miles away so you won't see much. Hiking in to the ocean entry is prohibited right now due to danger of bench collapse (miles of land fall off into the ocean).


Bottom line: A 45 minute drive from the hawaii volcanoes national park entrance station will show you some glow on the cliff. You won't be able to get very close.