walk on a volcano

I actually walked on a volcanic valley this past weekend – at Owakudani, Japan – a valley created by an eruption of Mt. Hakone 3000 years ago. It was VERY cool, and I will hopefully get a chance to walk on Mt. Fuji later this year. I’d like to climb it some day, but I won’t get to go this year, because it will be too early in the year to climb it when I leave. I will have to visit Japan another summer and make a trek to climb Fuji-san then. Until then, here’s a photo of Fuji-san! 3 years ago

In March 2007 my Mother and I went to Hawai’i and walked out to Kilauea which was absolutely amazing. I’m sad that I didn’t get to see an actual eruption or some form of flowing lava but even in the less dramatic form the crater and steaming vents were awe inspiring. It’s sense of sublime that is so hard to describe, the idea that you’re standing on the edge of something that not that long ago was a boiling pit of molten lava and that not that far under your feet it still is in that form, is just more than my mind can deal with.

I also grew up next to Mt. Shasta, which is still technically active. But I don’t count this quite as much, it’s less dramatic unless you visit the lava tubes, then you’re in for a treat. 3 years ago

The Arenal in Costa Rica, 1993. We hiked on it and then watched it erupt. The power of the thing sunk in a lot more once we were walking on it, seeing the cooled lava and how it had formed the whole thing. Definitely worth doing. 5 years ago

I went to the Kilauea volcano in August of 2002, on my honeymoon. At that time, there was a lot of surface activity coming from the Pu’uO’o Crater. We went at night when the glow of the lava could be seen from miles away.

It was about a mile or two hike from where we parked, and there were hundreds of other people of all ages making this pilgrimage-like journey from the ocean up the lava field to the fiery liquid. As we walked, we could tell that at times we were walking on land that had never been walked upon before: as some types of lava dry, they leave a glass-like layer on the ground. As we stepped onto it, the virgin lava crumbled for the first time ever under our feet. That was an amazing feeling.

About half way up to the first flow, I looked down and noticed that there were crevises in the lava bed. Some ranged from only a couple inches wide and a couple inches deep to about 9 inches wide, and 3 feet deep. In the larger cracks, I could see the glow of the earth underneath this upper layer – we were walking ON TOP of molten lava. That really got my adrenaline pumping. This was what made it so exciting – the fear of the unknown, the radiating heat (it must have been 100+ degrees at that point), and the memory of the story I had heard earlier that day: that 3 people had died hiking on the volcano just 2 days before.

The excitement became overwhelming, so in this way I wish it hadn’t been quite as powerful… the next part of the hike is much of a blur. My fear encouraged me to run toward the surface flow. When I arrived, I got about 15 feet from the thick, slow moving, glowing lava. The heat here was enough to take my breath away. It felt like I was in an oven, preheated to 450 degrees. I felt as though my sneakers were melting onto the ground. Someone near us had brought a stick with them on their hike, and they threw it into the flow. As soon as it touched the lava, the stick sizzled, became engulfed in flames, and in about 20 seconds, it was nothing more than ash. I was there only long enough to take a picture, then I ran the whole way back to the safety of my car.

On the drive back up Chain of Craters Road, we looked up to see the most clear, full sky of stars I’d ever seen. We pulled off to the side of the road and got out of the car. The aura was eerie – there was an irony in the air. The peacefulness of the star-laced sky unfathomably contrasted with destruction and creation of earth that Pele was orchestrating below. 6 years ago