Punaluu Black Sand Beach

We left on a tour Tuesday morning - made it about 2 miles to the Hilo Coffee Mill before time to stop and have coffee and snacks and pet Lele, the resident cat!  It was raining hard and the forecast was for rain, but we were headed over the volcano and down towards Southpoint, the southernmost point in the USA. Sure enough, as we reached the summit the weather changed and it was sunny and dry all the rest of the time over there.  Thank you to Rangerette Carey!
What's up for today is mostly scenic, landscape photos.  The mist, the Vog (Sulfur dioxide fumes from the volcano that are not really great for your health) and the layered landscapes are very seductive for me. Plus the turtles at the beach - they are beings that one can just sit with.
Enjoy - I captured a Brazilian Cardinal and some other neat shots, but too many for the post, so later.

Off the back deck of where we are staying

The hillsides with grass coexist with pure lava with nothing.

Down the hill toward Southpoint and Punaluu.

Wonderful.

An artistic arrangement by nature.

I love the contrasts - lava, palms, sky.

Playing in the lava - the boy had a small creature in his hand when I walked by that he was just observing.

Again, the contrasts, light, dark, soft and hard.

These two photos of the old pier that a tsunami savaged contain lines and action that I enjoy.

The VOG drifting southwesterly and mixing with the cloud bank - it will give you a headache right now!