Hawaii pt. 3: Volcanoes National Park

The day started off a little drizzly, but we headed out to explore the park anyway.  We hiked along part of the Crater Rim Trail to see the steam vents.  It was such a pretty trail, even with the rain, which sort of came and went.  Emma really like the steam because it was warm.

My view from under my umbrella.

More steam vents.

It was so fun wandering through this area with all the steam rising everywhere.

And I loved all the vegetation.

The drizzle seemed to be stopping, so we decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road, which takes you past quite a few older, non-active craters.  You can wander all over the place along these craters and over the lava fields.  Some craters were more recent while others were old enough that they were filled with trees and plants and other growth.  It was amazing to see all the volcanic activity that had occurred here.  Later in the day as we wandered over some of the lava fields, we felt obligated to attempt to play the ultimate game of lava monsters.  Unfortunately there weren't many "safe" spots to stand.  =)

Another crater down the road that seemed to still be breathing life.

How enchanting is this path?  How could you not follow it? 

One of many lava fields.  They were fun to explore.

This crater is full of trees and growth.

Emma was snapping pictures all the time.  Love my little budding photographer. 

Another lava field. 

Love seeing the ocean and coast in the distance.

Probably our very favorite little hike of the day was seeing the Thurston Lava Tube.  It's an underground channel where lava once flowed, leaving a hollow tube.  We hiked down the steep trail in the middle of a rain forest to get to it.  It was so amazing here.  It seemed almost too perfect to be real.  I had to remind myself that we weren't in some kind of fake, ideal rain forest setting that had been made to illustrate this type of climate and environment in a museum or at a zoo or some other place, but that we were actually here.

Once we got down to the lava tube we walked through it.  Because it had been raining the ceiling of the tube was dripping in places, which I think kind of added to the atmosphere.  Seeing all the lava fields and the hardened lava is really cool, but seeing this, where there was no old lava, but simply where lava had been, that this was created by the sheer force and existence of the lava flow, was incredible.

After coming out the other end of the tube, we climbed some stairs and then headed back up another path through more magnificent rain forest.  The birds seemed almost deafening at times, and there were some huge spider webs shimmering in the sun with the remaining water from the rain glistening on them.  Fortunately we didn't accidentally walked through any of them as they were along the sides of the path.

Next we stopped at the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs.  There was a mixture of trail and boardwalk surrounding a couple miles of varying petroglyphs.  The boardwalks are there to make it easier to see some of them.  The added elevation helped the view.

When we reached the end of Crater Rim Drive we walked along the coastal cliffs.  The view was magnificent.  Then we walked further along the road (it's closed off to cars past this point, but is open for walking for a ways) to see where former lava flows covered and blocked the road.

As we neared the end of the road, this is looking back up the hill at the path the lava took. 

So apparently lava will cause a road to be closed.  Who knew?  =)

There are two visitor centers in the park, the main Kilauea Visitor Center close to the entrance to the park, and the Jaggar Museum which sits on the rim of the Kilauea Caldera overlooking the Halema'uma'u Crater, which is still active.  Both centers have videos and displays etc, that are worth seeing, as well as souvenirs you will end up buying too many of.  At Halema'uma'u Crater you can see smoke rising from the center during the day and then at night you can see it glowing red from the burning lava deep within.  This was so fantastic to see.  We went earlier in the day, later in the evening when it was starting to get dark, and then again at 1:00 in the morning.  We got up to go and have the overlook all to ourselves.  It was cold with the blowing wind, but worth it for the glowing.

This was earlier in the day.  It's glowing here, but you can't see the glow during the day. 

Here it is glowing.  In full disclosure, I did not take this picture.  I found it online.  We didn't have a tripod with us, so our pictures of the glow didn't turn out quite so crisp.  But I wanted you to see how fabulous it was.  The glow was even more pronounced later in the middle of the night when we went back.

Hawaii pt. 2: Getting to Hilo and Volcanoes National Park

Hurricane Ana passed during the night.  Well, actually it was not a hurricane when it passed the Hawaiian islands.  It had been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it was a nasty one.  While we didn't see a bunch of downed palm trees, there was a lot of water.  Some parts of the island had flooding issues and some roads were closed.  And while the center of the storm didn't pass directly over any of the islands, it was close enough to bring lots and lots of rain.

Here is a satellite image of the storm.  You can see a couple of the islands (really small), including
(moving left to right) a dot that is Niihau next to Kauai, then Oahu, and you can sort of see where
Molokai starts, but then Lanai, Maui, and the Big Island are obscured.  I added the arrow so
 you could see where the Big Island is under the storm.

Most of the affected roads were on the southern side of the island, and we were driving from Kona to Hilo and ultimately Volcanoes National Park along the north side of the island, so we didn't run into any problems.  Just rain.  Lots of rain.  We were soaked just loading our things into the car.  The waves were kicking up along the beaches as we drove past and even though the weather wasn't great the view was still beautiful.

There were several things we could have done and places we could have seen along our way if the weather had been better, but I guess that gives us more of a reason to go back some time (as if we needed a reason).  We just did the best we could, and lucked into some of the most beautiful vistas and forests I've ever seen.  We were driving along when we found ourselves in the middle of a beautiful eucalyptus tree forest.  It was stunning.  We just had to pull off the road and wander around, even if it meant getting soaked.  We did have some umbrellas, which helped a little.  We wandered up a path for a ways and looked around.  It was so lush and green - I guess that's the benefit to so much rain.  Everything was so fresh and vibrant.  The colors were even more intense than normal. When we finished in the forest we continued the drive.  We came upon some fantastic foliage and picturesque waterfalls, and pretty views of the ocean.

Eucalyptus Forest

Eric trying to replicate the famous sasquatch photo.

When we finally arrived in Hilo we decided to first stop by the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm.  I think at this point it was raining harder than it had all day.  We heard a huge thunder crack and knew it had been very close; we thought from the trees just beyond the visitor center/gift shop building. We ran up from the car about to go inside right when a couple employees came out and announced that they were closing.  Their store had just been struck by lighting!  So it wasn't from the trees beyond the store, it was the store!  Luckily no one was hurt, but they had to close for safety reasons. Bummer.

Look at all the rain! This was as we were heading into the farm.
We got drenched in this only a few minutes later.

We headed back into Hilo and did a little shopping (never a bad idea in my mind).  After a quick bite for dinner we headed up to Volcanoes National Park where we were staying.  There is one hotel in the park.  They have some rooms in their main building, but they also have cute little cabins you can stay in.  We opted to stay in one of the cabins, in no small part because they have bunk beds, which Emma just loves.  We briefly looked around the park, but since it was getting dark we just went to our cabin and played some games before going to sleep.

Our little cabin.  

Inside the cabin.  Very small, but also cozy.

Hawaii pt. 1: Kona and Surrounding Area

This trip started with its planning almost a year ago.  So we've all had a long time to look forward to it.  Emma mentioned it quite frequently over the past year, so you can imagine our excitement when the time finally arrived for us to leave.  I was very excited for Eric and Emma to go.  Having family in Hawaii, I've been several times before, but this would be Eric and Emma's first time.

For the first part of our trip we were going to be on the Big Island.  I hadn't been to the Big Island on any of my previous trips, so this part was new to me too.  We were watching the weather closely as Hurricane Ana approached the Hawaiian Islands.  Depending on the path it took, it would run into the islands.  And being completely selfish, to me, this meant that our vacation plans might be affected.  =)  The night before we flew out to start our trip, we received a call from our hotel letting us know that due to the impending storm they were closing for the first two nights we were booked there.  Awesome.  Nowhere to stay.  So we quickly looked at our options.  We had been planning on staying on the Hilo side of the island, but wanted to go over to Kona as well, so we decided to stay there our first couple of nights and then return to Hilo for the next few days.  It made for an exciting way to start the trip.

Our first actual day of the trip was all travel.  We flew to L.A. and then to Hilo.  Emma has always loved flying, and so she was very excited.  I think it helped that this series of flights ended in Hawaii.

After we landed and waited for our luggage (which seriously took way longer than it should have considering how small the airport was) we waded through the higher than usual humidity to get our car. And of course, we were the last in a long line. I think everyone was renting from the same company.  We passed many line-less rental companies on our way to ours.  So this took awhile too.  But all this was okay because we were in Hawaii!  Seriously, none of this mattered.  We got our car (an upgrade no less - sweet!) and headed across the island to Kona.  Normally it would take about an hour and a half to get to Kona, but it took us about two hours to get there because it was raining for part of the drive, which slowed things down.  

In the middle of our drive we had to stop to look at the stars.  We were above the rainstorm, and the skies were clear up there.  I had never seen stars look like that.  Not in southern Utah where you're miles and miles from anything substantial (even unsubstantial), and not even when I was on Kauai on the Na Pali Coast where there's nothing but ocean for over two thousand miles before you hit land. These stars were utterly magnificent!  Something about the air up near the top of the Big Island.  It's no wonder they have telescopes up there!  Just breath taking.  We could have stayed up there much longer, but as it was, by the time we went to bed after reaching our hotel in Kona and checking in, we had been awake for 23 hours.  I needed to sleep!

The next morning we went out and explored around Kona and the surrounding area.  Eric wanted to see Kealakekua Bay, the site where Captain Cook had landed when he first arrived on the Big Island, so we headed there first.  Apparently, without much greater effort, you can't get really close to the statue they have at this site.  We ended up across the bay from it.  But it ended alright because we accidentally stumbled upon the best snorkeling place on the island.  Not too bad, especially since that's not why we went.  Apparently it's been made an underwater marine sanctuary. 

Just outside our patio at our hotel.  Emma's in the middle of a happy dance.

We stayed in one of the red-roofed buildings.

Great view of Kona.

The white monument across Kealakekua Bay is where Capt. Cook first landed.  This is as close as we got.

Another view of Kealakekua Bay.

We went back to the main part of Kona and tried going to the beach to relax.  Unfortunately all these beaches were closed due to higher swells from the approaching storm.  Ok, so no beach in Kona.  We walked around instead, including going to the Kona farmer's market where Emma found several souvenirs, including a shark tooth necklace, which she then wore almost every day for the rest of the trip.  I loved getting some of the fresh tropical fruit, like star fruit, dragon fruit, and mango, and having Emma try them.  We wandered the shops around the Kona Pier and in Kailua-Kona and bought some shaved ice.  This was Emma's first, and she loved it.  I had told her about it, but tasting was much better than just hearing about it.  So good on this hot and humid day in fact, that we couldn't be bothered to even take a picture of it!

We checked out 'Ahu'ena Heiau which is the sacred Hawaiian temple where King Kamehameha spent his last seven years in power before his son Liholiho succeeded him.  It's located right next to Kamakahonu (or King Kam) Beach, right by the Kailua pier, so it's really easy to get to.  And then we headed up to see the Kona Temple.  I think this is the first temple I've visited while dressed for a day at the beach.  It was a beautiful building.

We then headed to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau, which is a National Historic Park.  It's the site of an old Hawaiian place of refuge and some royal grounds with buildings and a beautiful cove where the Hawaiian royalty used to arrive by canoe.  This place was so gorgeous.  And we had the place practically to ourselves.  I guess everyone else was getting ready for the Hurricane, which was supposed to be passing the island starting that night.  It was very peaceful wandering around.  I don't think it would be possible to take enough pictures here or for those pictures to do the place justice. We were there for the last couple hours before sunset, so the light kept changing.  It was amazing. And I kept wanting to take pictures.  Of the same things.  Over and over.  Every time the light changed.  I just couldn't get enough.  And then the sunset that night was amazing.  You'd never know a hurricane was barreling down on us.

Emma really liked the baby palm trees.

The lava field was pretty, the way it flowed right into the ocean.

The wall separating the refuge from the royal grounds was really thick and huge.

Saw these really cute yellow birds all over the park.

Emma was given this little fish made from palm leaves when we arrived at the National Historic Park.
We later learned how to make them, and made our own (not that we remember how to do it now).