We spent February on the Big Island and had the opportunity to view the lava flow from the Kalapana side. It is approx 8 miles round trip out to the viewing area. We elected to go with Kalapana Culture Tours. We did the ride and bike which consists of them taking you and the bikes two miles out to gate #2 from there, you ride your bikes the remaining two miles to end and then do a short hike across the Lava to the viewing ropes. When you come back, you call them at gate#2 and they come pick you up. We got there late afternoon and set up our tripods right at the ropes. We ate the dinner we brought and then watched the sunset go down over the Lava fields. Once it got dark, the show began! Here is the link for the tour. You can rent from them right at the parking lot leading to the gate.
http://www.kalapanaculturaltours.com/

Nearly every newer digital photographic device - including phones, go-pros, drones etc are capable of taking excellent pictures under 'normal' conditions these days. It is only when you need high ISO, shallow DoF, large prints, high frame rate etc that different cameras, sensors, lenses etc become important. Unfortunately, no system comes with a Composition button. Composition and subject matter has to be provided by the photographer. That is why we all seem to agree 'its not the camera - its the photographer.'

I admit it, I am severely OCD when if comes to memory cards. I always carry a Sony RX100M4 for everyday shooting. One 32 Gb Lexar in the camera and another 32 Gb Lexar in my messenger bag. When I return home, the days shoots are transferred to Lightroom where they are under control of my equally OCD Dropbox based archival system.

With the "big" camera, the Nikon D810, I have 1 32 or 64 Gb card for each days planned shooting. At the end of every day, the images are backed up to a Western Digital My Passport WiFi drive AND synced to Lightroom. If there is a decent enough WiFi connection in wherever I am staying, before the next morning, the days shots are in the bosom of Dropbox. At the end of the trip, after transferring all the RAW images into Lightroom on my main photo-workstation, I reformat the cards used on the trip.

A bit anal retentive, but I've been burned before dealing with memory, USB sticks, HDs, etc.