Perched on the Rim

I made my way eastward from the beach and soon found myself in Volcanoes National Park.  I arrived a few minutes after the visitor's center closed, so decided to drive around the rim of Kilauea to the Volcano Observatory.  From the observatory you have the best vantage point into the current lava lake.  Apparently a couple of months ago the lava pool had risen all the way to the top where it could be easily seen from this location, but had since subsided several feet deeper into the mountain.  However the constant emanation of steam from the lava lake, probably aided by the drizzling rain was quite impressive.  A ranger indicated that the observatory was open all night and that after dark the glow was spectacular.  He also indicated that the crowds always come right at sunset, and suggested to wait an hour or two later.

Kilauea Crater from the Jagger Museum and Observatory

So I decided to head to the hotel, grab dinner, and come back that evening.  My hotel was actually one of the features of this trip I had been looking forward to.  It was a splurge, but I managed to get one of the rooms in the Volcano House hotel which is located within the National Park, perched right on the rim of Kilauea.  I checked in and my room was a ground level, crater facing, and had a window and small porch that looked directly out onto the crater.  Amazing view.  I could even see the gases from the lava lake.  After taking a shower and looking at my dinner options a steady rain and low clouds had moved in and completely obscured the crater.  The hotel restaurants were quite busy, so I ran into the nearby village (Volcano) to find dinner, spicy Thai noodles with mango sticky rice desert).

View from my hotel room, beyond those trees was the crater wall.

I then headed back to the observatory.  The clouds were still low over the crater and I couldn't see anything.  It was also raining pretty hard.  I huddled over the eaves of the building with about 15 other people, including the Austrian couple I mentioned earlier, and waited it out.  About an hour later we were rewarded as the clouds rolled out and the intense glow of the lava lake was lighting up not only the gases and steam coming out of the crater, but also the mists that were still in the area.  I tried hard to get good pictures, but it was very challenging.  Eventually I headed back to the hotel and checked out the view from my room, still cloudy, but clearing.  Within 15 minutes I could clearly see the lava lake glow from my window.  A wet, but exciting evening!

Lava lake after dark