Dec. 7: Kilauea Caldera, Sulphur Banks, and the Devastation trail

Finally, we headed for the crater rim to see the active caldera.  Lucky for us, our visit coincided with an active phase where there was actual red lava hopping around inside.  You can't get super close to it due to the fumes being poisonous, but there are viewing stations at the rim where you can get a magnified look at the lava boiling inside the crater, with sheets of rock being formed and then reabsorbed into the lava.

After this we did the sulphur banks trail, where there were lots of steam vents:

The devastation trail was next.  This was the site of an explosive volcanic event around 100 years ago, I think?  (That's the hazard of waiting to long to blog, the details get fuzzy).  It wiped out the forest and left a large barren area:

Next up, some more lava flows and some petroglyphs ...