Volcanoes - Day 7

Today was our third early morning in a row. Alison was not thrilled to get up early this morning. I was really excited to visit Volcanos National Park. Alison was less excited. She visited Volcanos as a teenager and she wasn't that impressed. I on the other hand have a fascination with volcanos and this was one of my top reasons to visit the big island. We woke up at 5am this morning. We had to get ready for the day, pack, make and eat breakfast, and be out the door by 6:45am to be on time for our helicopter in Hilo. 

We had a hectic morning, but we made it out the door on time. We bid farewell to the Bay Club. We very much enjoyed this hotel and would 100% stay here again.

To reach Hilo we had a ~90-minute drive across the island. It was an enjoyable drive. We saw a wide variety of landscapes in the 90 minutes. There were dry areas, wet green areas, and areas covered with large lava fields. The landscape is quite diverse on the big island. As we neared Hilo we began to see ominous clouds ahead. By the time we arrived at the airport, it was raining. 

By the time we checked in and watched the safety briefing the rain had let up a bit, but it was still drizzling and there were ominous clouds in the sky. Our pilot introduced himself and told us that because of the weather we would have to take a different longer route to reach the volcano. He also warned we may not be able to reach the volcano. He needed to know if we wanted to try. There were two other women in our group and all 4 of us needed to be willing for the flight to go. We all voted to give it a try. My personal philosophy is that if you have an opportunity you should take it. What is the saying - you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. We took the shot and we were glad we did. 

Because of the poor weather, our pilot took us on a circuitous path up the coast toward the volcanos. We really liked our pilot. He was both funny and informative. He pointed out a few beautiful spots along the coast and told us about the most recent lava flow in 2018. We saw a lot of the new land that was created when the lava reached the ocean. It was crazy to see the huge lava flows. It would have been scary to live in this area, many people lost their homes to the lava flow. Our pilot told us he had some family who lived near the lava flow. Even though their home was spared, they abandoned it because the experience was so traumatic. 

New land and a new road

A lava flow cutting across the landscape

We cut inland toward the volcanos and low and behold the weather here was mostly clear. We flew to the Kīlauea Caldara to see the Halema'uma'u crater. Kīlauea is the youngest and most active volcano in Hawaii. Inside the crater is a giant lava lake - most of the lava was blackened from contact with the air, but we could see some red hot lava as well. To me seeing that red hot lava made the helicopter tour 100% worth it. 

The first of many craters we would see on this flight

Halema'uma'u crater

Red hot lava

Here you can see the different layers that were created by various lava flows over the years

We circled Halema'uma'u crater a couple of times to ensure everyone had a good view of the lava lake. Then we made our way back to the airport. We followed along the chain of craters route, so we saw many other craters along the way, as well as other geographic markers created by the volcanos (steam vents, rifts, etc.) We also saw a couple of nice rainbows and our pilot queued up "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on our headsets since we were literally over the rainbow. 

Rifts in the earth

This is where a lava tube formed and then collapsed

Back on the ground, we headed to Volcanoes National Park. Our first stop was the visitors center. On the Volcanoes National Park website, they have a bunch of warnings that many things may be closed because of volcanic activity. This makes it challenging to plan our visit ahead of time. Our lack of planning wasn't an issue. They had great resources at the visitors center and helpful rangers to guide us in planning our day. One of the best things they had was different suggestions depending on how much time you plan to spend in the park. 

We headed as far as we could up crater rim drive. This drive used to go all the way around the Kīlauea Caldara, but the 2018 lava flow took out a large portion of the road. It sounds like they don't even plan to rebuild it. Now the road ends at a lookout point where you can see into the Halema'uma'u crater. It is gnarly to see it from the ground, as well as from the sky. It is perpetually smokey and you can smell the sulfur and other gasses in the air.  

I asked Alison to make sure she got a good picture of my shirt since it is so on the brand today. So then every time she took a picture of me she would take a picture of just my shirt. She thought this was hilarious. 

I was fascinated by these cracks in the earth 

Our next stop was to see the steam vents and sulfur banks. Here you can feel hot water vapor as it billows from the ground in steam vents. This phenomenon is created as groundwater seeps down to rocks heated by magma deep underground. The rocks are so hot that it vaporizes the water, returning it to the surface as steam. At the sulfur banks, volcanic gases seep out of the ground, along with steam. Fumes emitted here include sulfur dioxide, which smells like a struck match, and hydrogen sulfide, the gas that smells like rotten eggs. These vents and banks were deep gashes in the earth. Sometimes you couldn't see the bottom. It was interesting to stand by these vents and let the steam billow over you. 

Alison loves to take pictures of me when I am videoing/taking photos. She says it is me in my natural element.

When we were done in this area we took a short hike to Volcano House. This is a hotel built on the edge of the Kīlauea Caldara. It has a couple of restaurants so we got a table overlooking the Kīlauea Caldara. Eating a burger (or in Alison's case fish) while watching the steam and gases seep out of the volcano was pretty remarkable. During lunch, we talked about Alison's last visit to this National Park. She didn't remember this volcano at all. Which seemed strange because it is the central feature of the park. Later we would go back and look at her pictures from that trip and it was incredible to see how the park had changed in the 15ish years since her last visit. It is much more interesting now. 

Lunch views

After lunch, we walked out to get another look at the caldera. While we were out there I overheard a little girl talking to her dad. She wasn't that impressed with the view and asked her dad if they would get closer to the volcano. He assured her, "yes, they would get closer." In fact, he said they "would get close enough to touch the lava". Alison and I discussed how he was setting her up to be wildly disappointed in Volcanoes National Park. It reminded us of one of our favorite books - Subpar Parks Book - America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share. In this book, Amber Share compiles hilarious one-star reviews of National Parks. One of our favorites is a review she found for Volcanoes where a visitor complained, "Didn't even get to touch lava". We kept coming back to this review throughout our day in the park. It always makes us chuckle. 

We continued exploring the park. We headed down the Chain of Craters road. This is a scenic road through that park that goes all the way to the ocean. One of the first stops along this road is at the Thurston Lava Tube. Here you walk through a rainforest before entering a 500-year old lava tube where a river of lava once flowed. It was a really cool spot. Alison and I both loved it. 

After the lava tubes, we headed to the Kīlauea Iki overlook. This overlook provides views of the Kīlauea Iki Crater. We decided to hike down to the crater. It is about 3/4 of a mile through the rainforest to reach the crater floor. The crater floor is interesting because it is solid lava rock. You can still see the way the lava flowed and where it stopped during the last eruption. It was also fascinating to see the plant life that grew and thrived in this hostile environment. 

These beautiful flowers grew among the lava rock. There is even a little bee in this picture pollinating the flowers

We continued along the Chain of Craters road. It was a scenic road with pull-offs for various craters. It then continues through miles and lava fields. There would be signs throughout the fields indicating this lava was from the July 1978 lava flow or this was from the May 1990 lava flow, etc. 

We saw this huge rainbow and had to stop to take a picture

The road ended near a sea arch. It used to go further but was cut off by the 2018 lava flow. We saw the sea arch and then traced our path back to the entrance of the park. On our way back we stopped by a few more of the craters - they all looked more or less the same. These craters were pretty inactive. 

Alison had to take one last photo of my shirt

Then it was time to call it a day. We loved Volcanoes National Parka and hope we can come back and do some more hiking one day. 

We drove to Kona to catch a flight home. It was about a 2.5-hour drive. We took the slightly more scenic route along the coast. In Kona, we grabbed a quick meal at L&Ls before heading to the airport. We were on a red-eye flight. All red-eye flights suck, but it was our only option. We flew overnight to LA and then had a short flight home to SLC. 

I spotted our house as we flew into SLC

We were glad to be home, but we were sad to leave Hawaii. When we planned this trip we knew we would have fun. We knew the Big Island would be warmer than home and that is really all we were hoping to get out of the trip. This trip wildly exceeded our expectations. Every activity was more fun than we expected and there was way more to do than we thought there would be. We cannot wait to go back to the Big Island.