Black Sand and Lava

 Last chance this morning to stop back in at Ken's House of Pancakes, then a drive around the Island to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach.  Usually you can see sea turtles here, but the tide was high and there was a tour bus here so no turtles.  

Story of the Mystical Turtles of Punalu'u 

Black Sand was beautiful

From here we decided to try to find Fissure 8 that erupted from a crack in the earth in the Eastern Rift Zone of Kilauea.  They are doing tours of the area, but the  owner of the property was off island so could not do a tour.  The area is restricted and blocked off, so we drove around to find a view point.

The man that owns the property that fissure 8 is on said (on his web site) that lava from fissure 7 destroyed his house then fissure 8 opened up where his house used to be.

Note the "No trespassing sign" but we walked out to take a look.

The picture does not really give a perspective, but the cone created by Fissure 8 is 170 feet tall.

Panorama of Fissure 8 area

Amazing that plants are already taking hold