.A few months ago a family trip was planned to head to the big island of Hawaii. About a month before the trip I read that the lava from Puʻu ʻŌʻō volcano had started to flow again. I looked at the map and over the past month it had flowed about ½ the distance to the ocean. I monitored the flow map every week to see where the lava might be during the trip.
It looked like it might already make it to the ocean by the time we arrived in Hawaii. Our first day there we went to Volcano National Park and were informed that the hike to the lava was being closed for the next day or two due to a tropical storm that was heading in.
A couple of days later we headed back to the National Park to make the 10 mile round trip hike to the lava. Talking with the rangers at the visitors center it was a couple hundred yards from the ocean. This ended up being perfect as we were able to get out and be in front of the leading edge of the lava.
We spent about 2 hours watching the lava flow. My top sights I have seen so far have been The great wall of China, Machu Picchu and Angkor Watt temples the lava flow exceeds them all. It is the most incredible thing to witness in person.
If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend trying to get out and see a lava flow in person.
