Artifact Hawaii Photo Showcase: The story behind the lens…
"Unapproachable Splendor" by Michael B. Hardie
If you haven’t heard, the lava lake at Halemaʻumaʻu Crater is active again! It disappeared in 2018 and it seemed that a bit of magic from the island had gone with it. On December 20, 2020, at 9:30 PM local time, an eruption broke out within Halemaʻumaʻu and just like that, the magic was back, bigger and better than ever!
I consider myself fortunate every time I’m able to witness the lava lake. This shot had all kinds of crazy things going on. I was able to take this right before sunrise, on a frigid morning and under a cloudy sky just before the lake drained in 2018.
Mark Twain hiked to the floor of the crater in 1866 and penned these words peering into the lake of lava: “It was like gazing at the sun at noon-day, except that the glare was not quite so white. At unequal distances all around the shores of the lake were nearly white-hot chimneys or hollow drums of lava, four or five feet high, and up through them were bursting gorgeous sprays of lava-gouts and gem spangles, some white, some red and some golden--a ceaseless bombardment, and one that fascinated the eye with its unapproachable splendor. The mere distant jets, sparkling up through an intervening gossamer veil of vapor, seemed miles away; and the further the curving ranks of fiery fountains receded, the more fairy-like and beautiful they appeared