Big Island, Day 5: VOLCANOS!

Believe it or not, there was a day 5--I was apparently running low on blogging steam!

We got up early and drove into Hawaii Volcanos National Park--home to the Kilauea Volcano, the most active volcano in the world. The park was only about 4 miles from our "charming" accomodations. Our first reaction when we arrived was irritation, realizing how close we were to the Jagger Museum, where we potentially could have seen a small amount of lava in the evening hours the night before. After talking with people from the visitor's center on day 4, they sounded pessimistic--like they really doubted we'd see much, and it probably wasn't worth the drive. Well, when it only took 10 minutes to get there, it was probably worth the drive to at least check it out! Oh well.

First stop: Sulpher Banks.
Signs and pamphlets told us not to bring Zachary back on this trail, so we took turns checking it out. It wasn't quite as smelly as we expected, and almost a little eerie in the morning hours. The area reminded us of Yellowstone.

Here is a look at the Halema'uma'u Crater, where the Hawaiian volcano goddess Madame Pele is said to reside.

Steam vents: where rain has creeped into the ground, heated by Kilauea, and then released as steam.

A view of the Halema'uma'u Crater from the Jagger Museum. IF there was any lava surface flow the night before, this would have been our only place to see it (everything else was dry that day). Even though we didn't see rivers of red lava, it was still really exciting to see all the steam.

Mark Twain visited this crater in the late 1800s, when it was a lake of boiling lava. He said it was like gazing into the fiery pits of hell.It started to rain hard, so we delayed our crater hike a bit and visited the Thurston Lava Tube. It was cleaned up and tidy, with lights and everything. We would prefer the original version, but with Zachary, it was just fine. He wasn't near as nervous as the day before, but still wanted to be carried.

The rain cleared, and we enjoyed the day's highlight: the Kilauea Iki trail. This 4 mile hike takes you staight over the crater floor, right next to the Pu'u Pua'i vent, and through the lush rain forest surroundings that were not attacked by the November 14, 1959 eruption.

We picked up a hiking pamphlet at the visitor's center, and enjoyed descriptions and pictures of the eruption. The day of the eruption, a "curtain" of lava 1,900 feet tall emerged, shooting 5 times higher than the vent, and becoming the highest eruption ever in Hawaii.
This is the Pu'u Pua'i vent--the main vent (the red rock to the left of Brady). After lava gushed out, it eventually drained back into this vent. Enough lava came out during the eruption to bury a football field 15 feet in lava.

On the crater floor: the rocks were so light and airy, and it was wild to walk inside such a new crater, crunching along. This was absolutely the best part of the park for us.

Hiking back up into the rain forest.

A view of the trail:

Next up: Devastation Trail, a short walk through the forest area that was taken out by Kilauea Iki eruption. Zac wanted to run almost the entire way.

Barren!

I love this shot. There is a picture of it in the guidebook, but this one is better. Some ground cover finally recovering from the destruction.

We took the 19 mile Chain of Craters road. Appropriately named for all the craters you see along the way (including one called "Devil's Throat" that makes you gasp out loud), this road has changed course more than once after being taken out by the volcano--particularly after the 1969-1974 eruption of Mauna Ulu (also part of Kilaeua). In 1997, a couple campers woke up to gushing lava right next to their campsite. This place is active, just not always visibly so to the one-day vacationer.

What am I looking at?

Ah, there it is. You could taste the water. The famous Holei Sea Arch at the end of the road. The scenary was definitely worth the drive.

The Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs, which Brady checked out while I stayed in the car with our sleepy head (I saw petroglyphs back in Kohala on my runs).

Our final adventure of the day was really more of a misadventure. We realized we had 2 extra hours to burn, so we took a trail that was supposed to lead us to the Mauna Ulu Crater. It was in the Adventures section, so we knew it wouldn't be easy, but we didn't expect it to be impossible to find! It's the first time where we haven't been able to complete a hike because we couldn't find it. We've been off-trail many times and eventually reached our destination, but we didn't have time to get lost. We spent a hard-working two hours trying to find it, and finally just ended up back at the car so we didn't miss our flight. It was neat to hike all over the uneven lava surfaces, but pretty unsatisfying without the view we expected.

We're glad we took a day to get familiar with the volcano and the park, and maybe another time we'll see surface flows. The end of the trip was uneventful, unless you count when we lost our camera and cell phone in the course of one hour (now both recovered!).