Down the Chain of Craters Road in the East Rift Zone of the Hawai'i Volcano National Park lie a series of craters and steam vents which rise out of an expansive lava field laid in the early 1970s. The landscape is stark - with only occasional ferns and scrubby ohia trees breaking through the rock. 
Though the Napau Trail is closed beyond the Makaopuhi Crater because of the toxic volcanic fumes, a one day walk is possible by turning south along the Kalapana and Naulu trails to Kealakomo. An unplanned detour off the main path took me to Mauna Ulu - a bottomless steep sided crater pumping sulphurous steam into the wind.
The path is difficult to navigate despite the wellplaced cairns. Black lava, sharp and unstable, droops down hills in twisted liquid forms. At one point, the remains of a road is visible - reclaimed by the earth as a foot of black lava smothers the tarmac.
When the sun finally burnt through the clouds and the hot blue sky opened overhead, there seemed only one appropriate response.
