No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That’s really a no parking sign in lava. If you look carefully in this next photo, you’ll see the back of the no parking sign. 
We took these photos at the end of the Chain of Craters Road in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii’s Big Island. So, be careful where you park, when Hawaii says no parking, they mean it! 🙂
Sheila Beal
8 comments
This seriously made me laugh out loud. I can’t imagine even trying to park on lava. Talk about a bumpy ride 😉
They should have added no stopping or standing as well.
@ Ami – yes, a bumpy ride, indeed. 🙂
@ Dave – Ha! Pele must have been annoyed with the traffic on that road and decided to put an end to it.
If I had any serious Photoshop skills, I’d shop in a little VW beetle or something like that half-buried under the lava. Maybe have the radio antenna with a little happy face ball on top of it sticking out, too.
Kidding aside, that must be a high grade signpost in order to withstand that force of nature overtaking the road. Also a good metaphor for Pele as Sheila mentioned, wanting to take back the ground where we built a road/parking lot.
When i was on the big island in February trying to get to where we could see lava flow into the ocean, it was amazing to see the old flows and how they affected the roads. You could see the dividing center line dashes all twisted and turned around, it was unreal.
@ Kris – Ha! I bet there’s probably a car stuck in there somewhere. People bring offerings to Pele where actively lava flows. Interesting, but I’m not quite sure what to think of that.
@ jim – You bring up a good point that I think unfortunately misses some folks. The old lava flows are very amazing. Sure that red hot stuff is exciting, but to see the old lava with all it’s twists and turns and shapes is really very interesting.
OMG, this is hilarious! Okay, so we won’t give you a ticket or tow your car away but we might just pour molten lava over it. Haha!
@ Evelyn – glad this gave you a laugh. 🙂