Inside the Kilauea crater?

Someone asked me to post a picture of the inside of the Kilauea crater. There's a slight misunderstanding because the pictures are deceiving. You can't get close to the crater. All the pictures you see are from a pretty far distance. For obvious safety reasons, you're not allowed to hike to the crater anymore (you could in years past.) When the lava is flowing, there are other opportunities to see the lava up close. For example. on a boat or a guided hike. But it's never to the crater because access to the crater is prohibited.

To provide some perspective, this photo shows how far you actually are from the crater. The little green dots at the bottom of the cliff are trees.

You can see the inside of the crater walls using a telephoto lens. The second picture is of the inside wall of the crater.

Don't let any of this dissuade you from going and seeing for yourself. It's a great experience. But be forewarned that you can't walk up the crater edge and peer into the center of the Earth.