Kilauea Eruption 12/23/24

[Durian Fiend]

We were in the park hiking to Napau crater when it went off. The eruption was audible, not visible, until we got to Makaopuhi Crater. From there a huge plume of smoke was visible, no fountaining lava. After returning to our car a couple hours later we heard via text that the park had been closed. Chain of craters road, from a couple miles below Devastation parking lot all the way to the exit, was covered in debris. It looked like a gravel road rather than a paved one. There were a few cars parked here and there covered in rocks, etc. A front end loader was clearing highway 11 in both directions outside the park entrance. My MO was to get the heck out of there but we did catch a glimpse of the fountaining through the trees near Volcano golf course. Very impressive! My wife wanted to hit the Thai lunch plate there. I knew it would be closed but went along with the plan.
There were definitely people in the park within range of the eruption when all of the rocks were falling out of the sky. It's a minor miracle if no one got hurt. I guess we lucked out a bit in our timing. Neither the car or either of us suffered injury.