Today we did it! Tom really wanted to make it to the lava flow and today we did, but it about killed us. We started out at Kehena Black Sand Beach at 9:30 AM supplied with plenty of water, lunch and of course cameras. We had done part of the trail before and knew that it was going to be hard, but we were determined.
The hike weather was warm, but not too hot and we had a good tail wind to push us along so we made pretty good time going. The trail is well marked in the beginning, but the markers become fewer and farther between as you go. After a while we didn’t see any at all so had to make our own way with a bit of backtracking along the way. The trail is along the coast, however, so you can’t really get lost. Plus you can see the steam cloud which acts as a beacon as well as encouragement.

Hiking over lava fields can be treacherous but if you take time to look, they can also be magnificent. We were on a mission, so I didn’t have a great deal of time to take pictures. Nevertheless, I managed to get a few. These are some of the better ones:

This is ‘A’a lava – it cools more quickly and therefore is more brittle – very rough and chunky

These are  pictures of Pahoehoe lava. It cools more slowly and is much smoother. Luckily this is what we hiked over most of the time. I find it’s forms fascinating and beautiful.

 

This one I thought was spectacular! It is about a 10 ft high wall of lava and was awesome!

We took a short break at this small black sand beach.

Then we started out again – we’re getting closer.

 These are views along the trail.

          

The view was spectacular and well worth the trip.

 

After taking in the vision of new land being created and taking lots of pictures of it.

We headed back. Remember the tail wind I talked about at the beginning of the hike? Well, the wind had picked up and was now a headwind. Just let me say that it was a lot longer and harder hike going back. We stopped in a small and pretty wooded area for lunch and then pressed on.

We arrived back at the car at 3:20 (right at 6 hours). Figuring mileage later, Tom figured that it was about 12 miles a pretty extraordinary feat for people our age and another check on the “Been There, Done That” list.