Creeping lava is no longer threatening a public viewing area near Kalapana, but officials said there's still plenty of activity from the Kílauea eruption, now in its 27th year.

Geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have been monitoring a narrow lobe of lava that branched off to the east, toward Kalapana, from a lava tube originating above Royal Gardens, said Jim Kauahikaua, scientist in charge of the observatory.

He said the lobe had been moving "in bits and spurts" over older flows on the coastal plain until a week ago when it spilled over onto the former Kalapana access road in the kípuka between the 1989 Quarry flow, where the county's public viewing area and trail were established, and the flow field from the Thanksgiving Eve Breakout, which started Nov. 21, 2007.

A kípuka is an area surrounded by lava flows that often harbors vegetation.

"It happens every once in a while but usually it happens out on the flow field," out of public view, Kauahikaua said. "This one happened closer to the trailhead."

On Friday, a narrow finger of lava advanced along the old access road for about 200 yards, burning vegetation and pavement before pausing about 100 yards west of the viewing area.

"Saturday was pretty spectacular with active flows right there," Kauahikaua said.

The nearest homes are about a mile from the public viewing area and were in no danger, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency chief Quince Mento.

The close-up volcanic activity did attract about 1,100 visitors a night to the viewing area over the weekend, about 400 more than normal, he said.

Kauahikaua said that, based on the terrain, a flow would have to start higher up the pali to get far enough east to threaten populated areas.

"The only thing this would have threatened was the trailhead and the parking area," he said.

Kauahikaua said an abrupt deflation-inflation event at the magma reservoir near Halemaumau late Saturday caused an interruption in the magma supply that likely resulted in a pause in the flows.

Yesterday, the observatory reported that lava flows in the kípuka had stalled but that surface flows remained active to the west and were advancing toward the coast.

Meanwhile, lava from the Thanksgiving Eve Breakout has been pouring through tubes across state and privately owned land and entering the ocean at Waikupanaha, west of Kalapana.

Mento said visitors who hike the three-quarter-mile trail have been treated to clear views of lava emptying into the sea and the bright glow from flows on the pali.

The viewing area is open from 5 to 10 p.m.