Qualla: Lava Tree State Monument https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Lava Tree State Monument https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument Lava Tree State Monument: Introduction https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument/ Photo credit Sean A. Clevenger, CC BY-SA 3.0. They look like something from a fever dream. Hollow pillars of lava rock stand scattered through a tropical forest near Pahoa on Hawaii's Big Island, some rising six or eight feet, others broken and toppled, their interiors coated with moss and ferns. These are not natural rock formations. They are molds, the stone impressions of living trees that were engulfed by a lava flow in 1790. When the molten rock swept through the forest, it wrapped around the trunks, cooled against the wet bark, and solidified. The trees themselves burned away, but their shapes remained, preserved in basalt like plaster casts of something vanished.

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Image: Sean A. Clevenger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/8e3y-lava-tree-state-monument-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Lava Tree State Monument: How Lava Remembers https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument/ Photo credit Sean A. Clevenger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The process that created these formations is straightforward but the results are eerie. When pahoehoe lava, the smooth, ropy variety, encounters a standing tree, the molten rock flows around the trunk and begins to cool against the moisture in the bark. The outer layer of lava so...

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Image: Sean A. Clevenger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/8e3y-lava-tree-state-monument-how-lava-remembers.mp3 0:06 2 full Lava Tree State Monument: A Garden in the Aftermath https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument/ Photo credit Sean A. Clevenger, CC BY-SA 3.0. What makes Lava Tree State Monument striking is not just the lava formations but the lush tropical forest that has grown up around them. Two hundred years of rain, warmth, and isolation have turned the site into a dense garden. Orchids bloom wild. Moss and ferns colonize every cr...

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Image: Sean A. Clevenger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/8e3y-lava-tree-state-monument-a-garden-in-the-aftermath.mp3 0:06 3 full Lava Tree State Monument: Shipman's Land and Kilauea's Return https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument/ Photo credit Sean A. Clevenger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The land was once part of the extensive ranch holdings of William Herbert Shipman, whose family had deep roots in the Big Island's ranching and conservation history. Shipman was the same landowner who worked with Lorrin Thurston to establish the boundaries of what would become Ha...

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Image: Sean A. Clevenger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/8e3y-lava-tree-state-monument-shipmans-land-and-kilaueas-return.mp3 0:06 4 full Lava Tree State Monument: Stone Ghosts in a Living Forest https://qualla.com/lava-tree-state-monument/ Photo credit Sean A. Clevenger, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is something inherently uncanny about the lava trees. They are negative space made solid, the absence of something preserved in stone. Each pillar marks the exact spot where a living tree stood on a particular day in 1790, its height, its diameter, even its lean captured wi...

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Image: Sean A. Clevenger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/3/y/lava-tree-state-monument-wp/8e3y-lava-tree-state-monument-stone-ghosts-in-a-living-forest.mp3 0:06 5 full