Occasionally Adventurous: Day Fourteen, Kona to Volcano

This morning we packed up our Kona condo and headed to the southeast part of the Big Island. We drove north on 190 and took the Saddle Road (highway 200) southeast to the road that goes up to the Mauna Kea Visitors Center. It's a beautiful drive, and we got lucky in the weather department. In the lower elevations, it was misty, rainy and we drove through clouds in some places. We passed our turn off and stopped a mile down the road to turn off. From this location on Hwy 200, we had a wonderful view of the snow capped summit, with blue sky peeking through and some sunshine.

We drove up to the visitors center, which is at 9200 feet, more than 3000 feet below the summit. The road to the summit was closed, blocked off by barricades and and a park ranger in a Jeep. It was 57 degrees at the visitors center, but snowing at the summit. Road crews were trying to clear the snow and ice from the road, and no one was allowed to drive up the road. We hadn't planned to go higher anyway, but there were a few disappointed people in the visitors center. We watched a video about the 13 telescopes at the summit and the Hawaiian history of the whole area, which natives still consider to be sacred ground. By the time we got back down the road, everything was clouded in and it was raining. No summit visible at all, so we felt lucky to have seen it on the way up.

Arriving in Hilo with all of our luggage, we had our first (and with any luck, out last) fast food meal of the trip. It's been years since we ate at Taco Bell, and we proved that we hadn't missed a thing! The food was okay, tasty enough, and certainly inexpensive. From there, we headed south on Highway 11 to the Village of Volcano. We're staying at Hale Ohia Cottages, a bed and breakfast. We have our own suite with a mini kitchen, two chairs, a queen sized bed and a roomy bathroom. All the buildings date from the 1920's, and sit on an old vacation estate which has nicely groomed grounds that quickly end in a dense rain forest. We're surprised that none of the windows have screens, since we'd expect there to be a larger insect population than in the lower dryer elevations. We'll be closing the windows before dark!!

When hunger struck, we headed to the Kilauea Lodge Restaurant. We had a very nice dinner (chocolate cake with coconut and macadamia nuts!). Oh, and some nutritious food too. Now to sleep it off so we can go look for flowing lava tomorrow.