Decades ago, my wife and I visited the Big Island during a fairly sedate eruption. We drove down Chain of Craters Road, got to see a tiny lava flow (talking like a couple feet of glowing honey), but were wanting more. In the distance, we could see a huge steam column where a lava stream was reaching the sea. We asked one of the ever-attendant Park Rangers if we could walk over there. He said no.

But then he said - we close at 5pm, and there are no gates. OK, we can take a hint.

We drove to Hilo and bought cheap tennis and flashlights, then scurried back down Chain of Craters after 6. As the sky darkened, we walked towards the steam column. The rocks beneath our feet showed incandescent glows deep in the cracks, and we started to smell burned rubber from our cheap tennis. Eventually, we came to the lava outfall.

We watched nearly an hour as a river of molten rock cascaded into the ocean. We used our water bottles on our shoe soles, turning back when we ran dry.

I now understand that we were stupid - apparently the park loses a few tourists to shelf collapse each year - but we lived, and the memory is a treasure. Thank you, Mr. Ranger.

And yes, it's like being on a different planet - like being on our own, maybe 4 billion years ago.