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August 29, 2008
Ki'laueu Volcano is currently active and lazily adding to the landmass of the big island of Hawaii by dumping hot rock into the ocean through a lava tube. We hiked through the souther caldera but the northern caldera was closed to us as it was emitting large clouds of sulfuric gas.
We are both fit and experienced hikers and we were told that the hike through the crater floor would take about two hours. We pretty much ran through the hike in pretty short order. The longer hike was cut off by the active volcano so we were restricted where we could walk. This park actually had very few visually stunning walks, it was more geared to the bus-load of tourists, then again there are several volcanoes on Hawaii and this is the most easily accessed of them.
The volcanoes dominate the environment as well. They drag a chain of clouds from them which puts the southern part of the island constantly in cloud and fog cover. Especially as you go up the mountainside. It does leave the Kohala Coast in the north as one of the few areas to have sunny and unbroken sky.
The land is also scarred by the constant lava flows that seem to come in a geologically consistent manner. One scenic stop we did was on top of a lava flow from 1907 and the black lines of lava that cut the landscape can all be dated - often within the last 100 years.
Update: I am not happy with my new camera. It makes composition hard. It is a good camera but its screen is too light when in the full sun and there is no eye hole to compose with. I will have to buy another which is annoying.
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Cam,
an interesting post.
You just need to darken the view finder. Wear a hat to cut out the light. It is what I have to do with my tripod cameras--use a dark cloth.
The camera can handle clouds and ground on a sunny day in the second image. All camera's have their limitations. One just works within them--and you get different results.