Highway 137

One of my favorite drives anywhere is highway 137 thru the coastal Puna district on the Big Island. The road is totally rural, back in time about 50 years through very quiet countryside of spectacular beauty. Life moves at a slow, relaxed pace here. There is some activity; there are a couple of beach parks and a number of attractions that draw a few tourists, but it's still very peaceful here. The road is very unusual in that some parts of it are lush, quintessential tropical forest, but other areas are stark and barren thanks to recent lava flows. For all the tranquillity here, it could end at any place at any time, if madam Pele feels obnoxious and spreads a band of lava through the region.

There are graves by the side of the road in several places. They lie in the jungle, a reminder of times past. They're not in any organized cemetery. Are they eerie or nostalgic? I can't decide. These have been there for about 50-80 years.

The road passes through jungle, bare lava flows, and stunning coastal vistas where the sea meets the lava and the rainforest. The swells come straight from Antarctica; the ocean is almost always very rough. It's grand and wild here.

The road is canopied by trees in many places; the sun dapples shadows across the pavement, adding to the mystical scene.

This lava flow occurred in 1955, creating a black sand beach nearby. Part of the beach disappeared in the mid 1970s, when an earthquake dropped the coastline three feet. Other flows buried parts of the area in 1960 and again in 1990. 137 was probably a little busier years ago

as it used to go into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: you could make a loop drive from 137 to Kilauea Crater and on to Hilo. But lava cut the road in the late 1980s and has continued to flow ever since, so the road deadends in the village of Kalapana. At roads end is a fast food place that serves yummy milkshakes! The restaurant has a somewhat precarious existence; the flowing lava I blogged recently is only a couple miles away. Fortunately, it's not moving toward the restaurant-now.

This is my last day in Puna; I'm moving across the island tomorrow. Though I've been here for two weeks, I'd like to stay longer. But I'll be back in a year or two.

Lava on Da Big Island

Yesterday I found out that the lava was flowing much closer to the end of the road than usual, so we went to check it out. We found molten lava just 50-60 yards away, oozing slowly toward us. Blow the pic up and you can see the pahoehoe on the right.

The lava advances thru forests, occasionally setting a tree alight. This flow is moving on top of a 1990 flow that buried much of the historic village of Kalapana. This is the closest I've gotten to molten lava out of over half a dozen visits to the Big Island.

Here The Conster is posing on the slopes of Pu'u Huluhulu, a volcanic cone about 500 years old that is now covered with lush rain forest. In the background is Mauna Ulu, a much newer crater that spit out massive amounts of lava from 1969 to 1974 that went over the cliffs clear to the ocean a good 10 miles beyond.

Hangin' in Kapoho

Still kickin' in my house in Kapoho. My friends Connie and Sandy have joined me and we're all enjoying the tropical weather and the nautical ambiance.

The Conster had a long journey from the middle of the continent but made it here OK. She is now engaged in an arduous struggle for survival in the Hawaiian wilderness.

We have here a serendipitous meeting of The Feet. The one with the green toenails is The Conster...the pink Nails belong to The Sandster.

Volcanoes Still Firin' Up

As usual, the volcanic scene on the Big Island is dynamic. Halema'uma'u, quiet for a few decades, erupted early last year. A crater within the main crater has formed and vents steam most of the time, and occasionally rocks and ash. A new lava lake is sometimes visible in the bottom of the crater and comes across as a glow from this vantage point at the Jaggar museum. Can't get closer to it as the eruption is venting massive quantities of sulfur dioxide to the southwest (right side of the pic), which has forced the closure of part of the Crater Rim road and several trails.

Well to the east, the Pu'u O'o eruption that started in 1983 is still going strong...such a long eruption is unprecedented in the past two centuries. This is the steam plume of lava entering the ocean a couple miles to the west of Kalapana. The lava I'm standing on is vintage 1990...before then this spot was several hundred yards out to sea.

This black sand beach was created by the 1990 lava flow. That flow obliterated much of the village of Kalapana and an older black sand beach which was a major tourist attraction. I was in the area watching that flow creep down the mountainside (from a distance) only a couple weeks before it reached Kalapana. Black sand is surrealistic...you can get good chiaroscuro pix with just the sand and the sea foam.

This is a Honu, a Hawaiian sea turtle. He's hangin' at Punaluu black sand beach, on the southeast side of the island. The sea bottom here is covered with limu...seaweed that the honu love to munch on. So they hang out here in large numbers.

Makalawena Panorama

Here's a nice panorama of Makalawena Beach, one of my favorite spots on the Kona coast. If only they improved the access road! Of course, in that event it would be much more crowded...maybe it's better the road stays bad. At any rate, the beach is awesome.

Hangin' in Kona

I'm visiting Kona for the first time in over 3 years. Weather's perfect, pace moderate...not really slow, but not bad. As usual, I patrol the beaches north of town when here. This was my first visit to this one. It used to be called Kua Bay, and as late as 2006 it was accessible only by a rough dirt road. Now it's part of a state park, the access road has been paved, and the beach is called Manini'owali. It's much busier than it used to be, but it's certainly a beautiful spot.

I'm staying at the Kona Bali Kai, a moderately priced condo complex right smack on the water.

This is my fourth or fifth time here...great location. The surf is only about 50 feet from my lanai! The sunsets are gorgeous and you can watch the surfies. It's a fine place.

The morning light here is also beautiful.

This pic shows Makalawena Beach. Though it's only about 3 miles north of the airport, the access to it is still dicey...a very bad 2 wheel drive road, then a trail over jagged a'a lava, or an even worse 4 wheel drive road. This, it's still rather uncrowded. I set up at my usual slotation spot under an ironwood tree and lazed the day away, reading a fine travel book by Paul Theroux...good literature for such a locale.

This pond is just a few yards mauka from Makalawena. It's a Hawaiian phenomenon! Fresh water flows for miles down the mountain, thru the lava field, and surfaces and merges with seawater a very short distance from the ocean...only about 100 yards in this case. The water is about 75 degrees...very refreshing on a hot day! There are little fishes swimming about. It's a grand place to sloat in and cool off after a day at the beach.