On Mike's birthday evening, after dinner, we decided to venture out into the rain to see the glow from Kiluea crater which is visible from the museum inside the park. Within Kiluea crater is Halema'uma'u crater which is where the active lava lake is. It's a bubbling lake of liquid hot magma and is what you may picture in your mind when you think of a volcano. Instead of posting my really poor pictures and videos of the lava lake, you should check out the better resolution shots HERE.
The next morning, as it was still raining, we packed up and headed back into the park. We stopped first at the Thurston lava tube because a) it was raining and we could walk around in the tube without getting wet and b) no one else was there!!!
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| THE ENTRANCE INTO THURSTON LAVA TUBE |
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| INSIDE THE LAVA TUBE |
From there, we drove Chain of Craters road, so named because of the chain of different craters that are visible along the drive.
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| AT THE END OF CHAIN OF CRATERS ROAD, THE SUN WAS OUT IN TIME TO VIEW THE HOLEI SEA ARCH |
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| I LOVE THE CONTRAST BETWEEN PREVIOUS LAVA FLOWS AND NEW, GREEN FOLIAGE. CHAIN OF CRATERS ROAD IS THE ROAD YOU SEE GOING UP THE MOUNTAIN. |
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| BEAUTIFUL CONTRAST |
By then, the weather had cleared a bit and we were ready to start our first hike of the day, a 4 mile trek across Kiluea Iki crater!
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| FROM THE RIDGELINE, LOOKING DOWN INTO KILUEA IKI CRATER (CLOSEST) AND YOU CAN SEE THE SMOKE FROM THE LAVA LAKE IN HALEMA'UMA'U CRATER IN THE DISTANCE! |
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| ABOUT TO CROSS KILUEA IKI CRATER... THIS LAST ERUPTED IN 1959! YOU CAN SEE SOME PEOPLE BEHIND ME ON THE TRAIL. |
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| THE HILL YOU SEE IS CALLED PU'U PUA'I AND IS WHERE THE ERUPTION OF 1959 BEGAN. SOME LAVA FOUNTAINS REACHED 1900 FEET! THAT IS 4 TIMES THE HEIGHT OF THE CRATER WALLS! THE ERUPTION LASTED FOR 36 DAYS! |
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| THE LAVA LAKE HAS COOLED AND CRACKS WHILE IT IS "SETTLING" |
We left the park midday to meet Pam and Michael in the town of Pahoa, just north of Volcano. We drove to the Kalapana side of the current lava flow to get the best view of it. It's a long walk (about 4 miles each way) along a flat, gravel road. The hike is totally worth it in my opinion. It is one of the most easily accessible lava flows in the world and we were fortunate enough to get to see if flowing all the way into the ocean!
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| HIKING BACK INTO THE PARK (FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE PARK) |
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| WALKING TOWARD THAT BIG CLOUD OF SMOKE! |
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| LAVA FLOWING INTO THE OCEAN! HOW AMAZING! SO WE SAT AND WATCHED THIS IN AWE FOR A WHILE UNTIL WE OVERHEARD SOMEONE SAY THAT A SHORT HIKE AWAY YOU COULD SEE LAVA FLOWING THROUGH A HOLE IN THE ROCKS... NATURALLY WE HAD TO GO CHECK THAT OUT: |
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| LAVA! |
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Then we headed back down toward the ocean to get a good seat for the show... the lava show:
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| BEAUTIFUL! |
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| WE WERE WATCHING LAND BEING MADE. TRULY AMAZING! |
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| THERE WERE OCCASIONALLY THESE SMALL EXPLOSIONS OF LAVA! SPECTACULAR! |
Our day at Volcanoes was indescribable. When we got back to the car we were HUNGRY and tired. We headed to the closest pizza place and then headed to our humble abode for the night (a rustic cabin within Volcanoes National Park).
The next morning, we PLANNED to go hike to Green Sand Beach but honestly, we were starting to lose steam. Our feet were still tired from the hike the previous night and we were just ready for a relaxing beach day.
So, we made a quick stop at Punalu'u bakery on our way back to Pam's house.
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| MALASADAS! PORTUGUESE DONUTS! SO DELICIOUS! |
Then we headed to Kua Bay for some lounging:
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| FINALLY A WHITE SAND BEACH DAY |
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We decided to switch to Pine Trees State Park to take in the sunset:
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| OUR SUNSET VIEWING SPOT |
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| DRAINING... |
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| FILLING... |
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| FULL!!! |
We headed home for dinner followed by HUGE slices of macadamia nut pie for Mike's birthday! Delicious!
The next morning we woke to our last day on the island. Our flight didn't leave until 9 pm so we had ALL day to enjoy one more beach!
We chose to hike to Makalawena:
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| THE HIKE IN PREVENTS MANY PEOPLE FROM COMING TO THIS BEACH! |
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| THE BEACH STRETCH OF THE HIKE |
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| FLOWERS ON THE BEACH?!?! TOO AWESOME! |
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| THE LAVA STRETCH OF THE HIKE |
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| PERFECTION! |
We headed back to Pam's to shower and pack... then went out to dinner at Kona Brewing Company and into downtown Kona for ice cream before heading to the airport.
We were so sad to leave because we had such an amazing time!
Thank you so much Pam and Michael for being wonderful hosts, tour guides, chefs, chauffeurs, and personal photographers! We are truly sooo grateful! Please come back to Tahoe anytime!
Here's a little video compilation from our trip. Enjoy!
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