Volcano Day.
This was our day to visit volcanoes. Not that we hadn't been all along - the whole state is made up of volcanic islands, after all - but Volcanoes National Park is in a league of its own and our reason for going to the Big Island. But I get ahead of myself.
Breakfast at our B&B was served on the verandah. It overlooked a huge back yard, filled with all
kinds of fruit trees. Our hostess told us most of the fruit in our breakfast was grown right in their yard. She also said you don't really garden here - you just plant stuff and try to keep it under control! It was quite the feast, with all the fruit, fresh smoothies and homemade breads. It's really a good thing we don't start every day that way, or we'd need to be rolled around. Our fellow guest was there to use the observatory on Mauna Kea. I wish he'd been more talkative, as that must be fascinating work. He said he comes every few months for several days at a time. Kendra later told us he snored terribly. Glad I wasn't in the room next to him...
Our hostess kindly lent us a cooler and some flashlights for the trip. I don't know why, but National Parks either seem to have no food or nothing but hot dog/hamburger kind of stuff. While Volcano Village (yes, that's really its name) is only 5 minutes outside one edge of the park, we didn't know where we'd be at lunch time and didn't want to be stuck an hour away from food, so we packed lunch in. Why flashlights? We'd read that if we stayed to see lava at night, we'd be a long ways from any lights and would have trouble seeing. It turned out to not be an issue, but I'll get to that in a bit. Or maybe a while - this promises to be another long entry.We headed off to the park, in jeans and closed toe shoes, with jackets and long sleeves in tow. It certainly wasn't chilly at sea level, but the highest park of the park is over 4000 feet, and is usually cloudy and often damp, plus we planned to stay until after sunset. Pants and sturdy shoes are highly recommended, as volcanic rock is incredibly sharp, and can give you severe lacerations if you fall on it. We didn't feel like testing that ourselves.
Joe got worried as we drove. He thought we weren't on the right road as we weren't climbing and couldn't see any mountains. Well, we kept seeing signs telling us we were on Volcano Highway, and then started seeing altitude signs, and it quickly became obvious we really were climbing! But you don't really see mountains coming - all of a sudden you're just at the park entrance. National Parks are such a bargain - a whole car load is only $10 for the day. And if you ever get a chance to take a tour with a Ranger, do it. They're always good and they're always free. We had one with Ranger Travis. He told us a bunch of stories, wove in facts and told some pretty good jokes. I'm sure he's told them all a few hundred times, but he kept them fresh, and that's not easy. He told us about different flora and fauna, and explained quite a bit about volcanoes, too. Some of the Hawaiian legends are fascinating,
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| Lehua flower |
not, visitors used to be able to follow a road out to a wooden fence overlooking the lake. But in 2008, people reported huge increases in the amount of steam pouring out of the crater, and sulfur dioxide levels rose sharply. While there wasn't the increase in earthquake activity that usually precedes an eruption, the park service closed the viewing area anyway. Good thing. The volcano erupted soon after, tossing lava chunks the size of washing machines through the fence, utterly destroying it. People would certainly have died. Now you view from a much safer distance! All the rangers wear portable sulfur dioxide monitors. Parts of the park are closed because of high levels of this poisonous gas. Winds in Hawaii tend to be pretty steady, because of the ocean trade winds, and the visitor center was carefully placed to be upwind of the fumes most of the time. But winds can change, and levels rise quickly, so the rangers have the monitors to warn them if there's danger. There are also places displaying QR codes, so you can use your smart phone to check! I could go on and on about the volcanoes here, but won't. Instead, I'll recommend this page to you (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%ABlauea)- it's chock full of fascinating information. Two things: Big Island is actually made up of five different volcanoes, and it's only relatively recently they've figured out Kilauea is not part of Mauna Loa, and this volcano's been erupting constantly since something
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| Map of Big Island |
like 1983, and incredibly often before that.
Remember we wondered why Hilo has so few things catering to tourists when thousands visit VNP every day? Well, we got part of that question answered at the visitors center. They posted signs suggesting what you should do if you only have a certain number of hours in the park - and I think the signs started with a mere 1-3! There really isn't anything else to do on this side of Hawaii, so I can only imagine people fly in, drive up for a couple of hours and fly out. Boy, do I feel sorry for them. We spent the whole day there and could have used a bit longer!
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| remind anyone of Empire Strikes Back? |
After our ranger tour, we went to the steam vents and the sulfur bank. The steam vents weren't much for Joe and me, as we've been to Yellowstone a few times and seen plenty. The sulfur banks were more interesting. This cairn of rocks was put up about 50 years ago, all neat and square as you can see in the black and white photo on the sign. But look at what 50 years of fumes have done to the rock in the left photo! Joe rested again a bit here, wanting to save his ankle for later.
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| Thurston Lava Tube |
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| On the way down |
got home. So down we went. The trail wasn't rough and not particularly steep - but of course down is the easy part! We all made it to the bottom, and entered another world. I have to say this ranks right up there as one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It's like another planet - all these slabs of black, black rock. We decided to walk along the trail, such as it was, as far as Joe thought he could go. We'd never have done this on a warm sunny day - we didn't have hats or enough water (notice I say enough - we did have some) to withstand the heat that must come off this surface in the sun. It started to mist whilst we walked, and, since it never got any heavier than that, it was ok as it kept us cool. You can actually SEE the ripples in the lava flows (see picture at the end). Big slabs are lifted up, while others have fallen. We all went about 2/3 of the way across the crater, from number 14 to about marker 11 on this map (from 
Next up: Chain of Craters Road. It's really Chain of Lava Flows road, but that doesn't have quite the same ring. You drive through (and I mean through - the road's been cut right through the flows) flow after flow on your way down to the ocean. We really meant to just drive to the end of the road, but couldn't help stopping now and again. It's just so amazing. Some of the lave looked like tree trunks, some of it like water ripples and some like clods of dirt! Who knew? But eventually we got to the end of the road - sort of. The road used to go on from here (zoom in on the sign), but eight miles of it was buried under lava between 1983 and 1991. Hundreds of homes and a visitor center were destroyed, but, since the
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| The lava just...stops |
lava moves slowly, people got out of the way. It's about a half mile hike from the official end of the road to the actual flows, and this time it was hot. We were still all in jeans, but the sun was out, and it was a humid 80. Joe still made it and even did some walking on the lava - which looked different yet again! Sorry for all the pictures of lava, but we were all fascinated. Some of it even comes down in these fine glass filaments, called Pele's hair. It's illegal to pick these up, as all materials out of a volcano are sacred to Hawaiians, plus you just can't take stuff out of national parks! Make sure to read the sign in the picture below.
We climbed back up to the Jagger Museum, overlooking Kilauea crater again. It was nearly sundown, and that's when the show starts. Although you can't see lava, you can see its glow against the sides of the crater after dark. And the darker it gets, the brighter the glow. Hundreds show up every night. We got a great night - the clouds meant the glow reflected off them as well. We talked to another ranger for a while. He explained the odd lighting we'd noticed on the island. It's there to protect the night sky for the big observatory. I didn't follow the long explanation, but suffice it to say the nature of the allowed light means it can sometimes be filtered out of the data at the observatory. The fact that much of the island is often cloud covered - and the clouds are below the summit - helps, too. And it turns out this kind of light is better for birds and turtles as well - doesn't interfere with them as much as more standard lighting. Lights were shielded, too - with the light directed downward instead of out in a globe.
Eventually we headed back out of the park. We hadn't needed the flashlights. The lava flow right now is so far from any accessible point in the park that you can't see any. Period. Boy, did we hear visitors pestering the rangers about that - like somehow the rangers could make the lava flow just to make these folks happy. Yeah, it would have been truly fantastic to see lava actually flowing,
but what are you going to do? We stopped in Volcano Village for dinner, hitting up one more place specializing in local foods for a late dinner. Fortunately for Joe, the drive back to our B&B was more like 45 minutes, on reasonably straight roads, instead of the 2+ hours from Hana!This picture at the left shows four different kinds of lava. From top to bottom:
A'a - rough and jagged, made us all think of dirt
Pahoehoe - smooth and ropy
Pele's hair - really volcanic glass
I don't know if this is just a version of Pahoehoe, or if it's really a tree trunk in there!
One last geeky thing: Look at the map showing all the different lava flows over the last 100+ years. And that's only at the summit! There are many, many more as you head down to the coast. From http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/calderageology_map.html
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