Day Fifteen - Volcano National Park

We awoke early this morning, ate the lovely breakfast (homemade date bread, papaya, apple bananas, and tropical juice) provided by our host, packed a picnic and headed out to look at lava.  Boy did we see a lot of lava, all of it black.  No lava is flowing right now, except in a remote location that can only be viewed from the air.  We started at the visitor's center, where we picked up a map of all the roads and trails.  There was a light mist in the air and some fog.  High on our list of activities was the mile and a half Kipukapuaulu Trail.  This trail winds through a rain forest with a large bird population.  We headed there first, and were pleasantly surprised to find no rain, and no one else in the parking area.  We strolled at a leisurely pace, listening to an amazing variety of birdsong and reading the signs explaining the plant life.  We saw birds flitting around in the canopy, but none in the dense understory where we were walking.  It was a totally pleasant walk.

Next we drove southeast on Chain of Craters Road all the way to the end.  The road ends abruptly half a mile before lava that was deposited over the road in 2003,  We ate lunch in the picnic area, then walked along the closed part of the road to the lava flow.  We walked a few hundred feet out over the lava, which is porous and crumbly and not too easy to walk on.  The older lava underneath was visible in places, and we could sometimes walk around the newer lava  We spent a few minutes at the Holei Sea Arch, watching the ocean crash into the high cliffs along the southern shoreline.

We drove to the start of the trail leading out to the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs, but changed our minds about walking it.  Round trip is a mile and a half, all over lava till a boardwalk at the end, and the sun was hot.  We drove north, stopping at most of the pull offs to view craters or unusual lava formations and fissures.  We stopped at the overlook for the Pauahi Crater, and walked a little ways out onto the Napau Trail, which goes a mile to an overlook, then continues through back country (all lava fields) for another ten miles.  We only walked half a mile out, came back, and took another small trail out onto the lava field, which had numerous very deep fissures.

Our last hike was the half mile one way Desolation Trail.  This trail skirts the edge of a 1952 lava flow and enters a recovering forest area.  It's interesting to see how the land gradually becomes inhabited by plants and wildlife after the lava cools.  On this field, it took about ten years for the lava lake to cool enough to support life.  We saw a variety of grasses, ferns, and trees, and our only sighting so far of the nene, Hawaii's state bird.  Once we got to the end of the trail, we had to retrace our steps, or walk on the road.  We chose the road thinking it would be shorter, but it wasn't.  We did see some interesting black roosters, though.

We drove out past the visitors center to the opposite end of the crater road.  It's closed at the Jagger Museum because of dangerous sulfurous fumes from the lava lake in Kilauea Caldera.  We walked around the museum, and found out from the rangers that we could come back after sunset to view a red glow in the caldera.  We opted for dinner instead.  After a chill out period back in our room, we had dinner at Thai Thai (not a typo!) Restaurant in Volcano.  The food was good, but Pat didn't like the Thai beer!

Many of the trails have signs like this identifying plants.

Steam from the Kilauea Caldera seen from a distance.

New plants starting the process of growing a forest on top of the lava.

A few hundred feet past the end of the road.

Rocky coastline

Holei Sea Arch

Lava doesn't just come in black!  Some gorgeous colors.

The Kilauea Caldera

You never know what might be lurking behind a tree!