Hawaii pt. 4: Exploring Hilo

We left the park the next morning and for our last full day on the Big Island we decided to explore Hilo.  The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.  The kind of day you imagine having while in Hawaii.  When we got to Hilo we could just make out the observatories on the top of Mauna Kea. The air was so clear!  Those observatories are at the top of the volcano, which is 13,796 ft above sea level.

We first headed back to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm to attempt an actual visit sans rain.  You can take a self-guided tour of part of their manufacturing and packaging process, but more importantly, there is a sample bar with every kind of macadamia nut they sell.  A free sample bar people!  And they are totally fine with and actually encouraging of you trying them all.  At least once.  Did I mention how fantastic this place is?  =)

There were several beaches we wanted to visit, so we headed to the first one which was very kid friendly.  It was basically protected from the big waves and current by some lava rocks, which made it ideal for snorkeling.  I think Emma could have gone all day!  She never stopped.  I don't think she put her feet down once the entire time.  At one point she turned around and there was a sea turtle right there.  She decided we needed to follow it for awhile.

Emma's sea turtle friend.

Right next to this protected area was a beach where the waves were crashing.  It was just so beautiful.

Then we headed down the road to another beach park.  This one did not disappoint.  Very beautiful grounds with more amazing views.  This one was a black sand beach though, which I loved!

Emma being silly because of the sign, pretending she had been hit by a falling coconut.

After we were done at the beach we didn't have a specific plan as to what to do, so we just started to drive around and stumbled upon a fantastic park.  We walked around Liliuokalani Park for quite awhile.  This park had several cute little bridges and some wonderful trees.  Along one side of the park was a road called Banyan Drive, where many large Banyan trees line the road, each one planted in honor of a celebrity, often done by the person themselves in a ceremony.  They started planting the saplings in the early 1930s.  There are trees in honor of US Presidents and other politicians, movie stars and directors, adventurers, religious leaders, and notable Hawaiians.  The names include Franklin D Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Cecil B DeMille, Amelia Earhart, and Heber J Grant, among others.

Some of the paths were a little flooded due to all the recent rain.

After all this swimming and wandering around we were in great need of something refreshing.  And since we hadn't had lunch yet, we thought Jamba Juice sounded great.  Emma certainly enjoyed hers!

We checked into our hotel, and putted around relaxing a bit before going out to grab some dinner. Then we headed up Mauna Kea to the Visitors Station there where you can do some stargazing.  This is what the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii said about Mauna Kea:

"Mauna Kea is unique as an astronomical observing site. The atmosphere above the mountain is extremely dry -- which is important in measuring infrared and submillimeter radiation from celestial sources - and cloud-free, so that the proportion of clear nights is among the highest in the world. The exceptional stability of the atmosphere above Mauna Kea permits more detailed studies than are possible elsewhere, while its distance from city lights and a strong island-wide lighting ordinance ensure an extremely dark sky, allowing observation of the faintest galaxies that lie at the very edge of the observable Universe. A tropical inversion cloud layer about 600 meters (2,000 ft) thick, well below the summit, isolates the upper atmosphere from the lower moist maritime air and ensures that the summit skies are pure, dry, and free from atmospheric pollutants."

No wonder the sky was so clear on our first night on the island as we drove across Saddle Road to get to Kona!  You can enjoy stargazing at the station every night.  This is a little lower than the observatories at the summit, which would be great to see, but they have some further restrictions that wouldn't allow Emma to go (she's too young).  But the visitors station had several huge telescopes we could use as well as a stargazing program run by the staff where they point out and talk about all the bright constellations and bright objects visible the night you're there.  The telescopes are pointed at various objects in the night sky, including open clusters, globular clusters, double stars, nebulae, planets, galaxies and supernova remnants.  And visitors can make requests if there are other things they'd like to see and learn about.  The station is at 9,300 ft elevation, and it gets really cold up there as you view the stars.  Inside the station they have warm clothing you can buy if needed.  We had brought a few things and were okay, but we thought it would be fun to have a snuggly warm blanket from Hawaii.  Seems like an odd souvenir.  We loved snuggling under it though while watching the sky.

On our way up to the visitor station.

The sunset on our way was glorious!

Again, without a tripod, our camera wouldn't be able to get a very good shot of the stargazing, but I wanted you to see the telescopes and the station.  The station was lit by red lights that wouldn't interfere with our seeing the stars.  It was a really great setup.  (This picture and the next two: Credit: Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station)

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.