Over the past 25 years millions of visitors have visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii to take a chance on seeing the lava flow down the mountain, enter the ocean or even catch one of the rare but spectacular lava fountains where lava is shot hundreds of feet into the air.
1983 Lava Flow Destroys Royal Gardens Subdivision
On March 2, 1983, exactly three months after the initial eruption, lava destroyed the first house in the Royal Gardens Subdivision, a largely undeveloped 1,800-acre community about four miles from the initial eruption site. At the time there were about 150 people living in the community who were forced to evacuate. Over the rest of 1983 numerous other buildings were destroyed in the subdivision.Over the next ten years the lava flow destroyed the town of Kapaahu, the Pacific Paradise Oceanfront Estates subdivision, the Volcanoes National Park Wahaula Visitor Center and lovely Kalapana Village and nearby Kaimu Beach, the island's best known black sand beach.
On February 7, 1992, the lava flow stopped in this direction moving back to Pu`u `O`o crater and eventually began to flow down the mountain further west in the park.
2007 East Rift Zone Eruption
In June of 2007, just months short of the 25th anniversary of the initial eruption, the lava flows returned to the east rift zone, the site of her initial flows in 1983.
"Feel the Heat" Helicopter Flight
It was over this area that I was lucky to fly with Paradise Helicopters in October 2007. I chose a doors-off flight appropriately called "Feel the Heat." While the helicopter stayed several hundred feet above the lava flows, you definitely could feel the heat, smell the sulfur and appreciate the sheer power of Kilauea.I have prepared a gallery of twelve photos of my flight over the lava flows which I hope that you'll find interesting.
Royal Gardens as of October 2007
As of the time of my flight there were two homes still occupied in the Royal Gardens Subdivision. One is owned by Dean Schneider. About a half mile away Jack Thompson operates Jack's Lava Flow Bed & Breakfast - the only bed & breakfast on earth surrounded by lava fields. You can view the Royal Gardens Subdivision and Jack's Lava Flow Bed & Breakfast as of October 2007 in photos 10 & 11 of the photo gallery. Those two homes are accessible by a path bulldozed though the lava fields following the events of 1983.
Lava Flow Returns to Royal Gardens
Just today, on January 11, 2008, I read that the current lava flow has once again approached the Royal Gardens Subdivision, once again threatening these only two remaining properties.It seems that Madame Pele is determined to remind those two remaining residents that she hasn't forgotten the work she left undone 25 years ago. She has her own, unique way of celebrating the silver anniversary of the Pu`u `O`o-Kupaianaha eruption of Kilauea volcano.
