Our week on the Big Island really ended with a bang! We were at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park when Episode 41 of the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption began. It turned out to be an 8+ hour event with fountains from both the north and south vents peaking at 1,500 feet, a new record since the current eruption cycle began back in December of 2024.
Tephra from the eruption was reported as far as 16 miles away. We viewed the eruption from about 2 miles away (at Volcano House inside the National Park) where it fell from the sky like light hail. We also found Pele's Hair all over our rental car, which we had to wash away with a make-shift bucket in the form of a traffic cone. Watching the eruption was amazing and well worth dealing with a little rain in the form of rock fragments... the tephra was surprising delicate, but also messy with some sharp edges.
We watched the show until just after sunset, when the views got even better thanks to the glow of lava. More than 14 million cubic yards of lava were erupted over the course of the day, covering 85% of the crater floor.
Speaking of sunsets, there were many lovely ones over the course of the week. Click here for photos. We also saw whales playing just off shore nearly every day - lots of tail slaps and a few full breaches, which proved hard to catch on film, but the big splash pictured below came just after a breach.
