Hawaii, April 3rd - Volcano

Today's adventure was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The park itself is 60 miles away, so I spent a bit more time with the most-random radio, before getting to the park at 10 am. After a quick trip to the visitor's center (nice, but crowded, ugh!) I was off to the Kilauea Iki hike.

The little gray line is the path across the crater floor.

This hike takes you down into the Kilauea Iki crater, across the crater floor, and back up again. Amazing!

That little path is the start across the crater floor.

Rift zones and spooky territory.

It felt like the moon, if it is possible to feel like such a thing. A very alien landscape, to be sure.

The sheer walls of the crater. 

That's steam from the crater coming up behind me. Yes, it was raining. And cold and windy. But I had fun!

Then I went through the Thurston Lava Tube. That was actually my least favorite part of the day. I got there right as two tour buses were unloading, so it felt more like a trip through a Disneyland ride (complete with long line, yelling children, etc.) than an actual lava experience. Apparently there's a less-visited lava tube that's only available on guided hikes that's much better.

After that I was so "get me out of here" that I took a wrong turn. Instead of taking the short 1/2 mile hike back to my car, I went the long way around. Yup, 4 1/2 miles instead! I think it was among the most amazing parts of that day. Total hike: 8 1/2 miles.

The start of the extra hike, through the fern forest.

They're hard to see, but it's actually a funny purple fiddlehead fern.

A self-portrait, attempting to capture the glee I was feeling being right there at that moment.

A friendly chicken. Apparently, feral chickens are a big problem in Hawaii. And everyone comes home with a picture of one!

Pu‘u Pua‘i, a cinder cone. After the lush vegetation of the forest, hiking across this territory was a bit of a shock. And hot.

The smoke from the Kilauea Caldera.

I'm very glad, however, that I'd brought extra water and food with me and have completely shucked all inhibitions about peeing in the woods. 

After I finished hiking, I went to another wild and beautiful spot - the Hilini Pali Overlook. It's where many of the backpacking trips begin, but by then I was too tired to even think about hiking around.

After relaxing for a while there, I drove down to the end of Chain of Craters road to see the lava glow in the distance, since it had gotten so late. I went to the end of the road and thought about hiking over the lava to see it better, but with no flashlight and a slightly tweaked knee, common sense prevailed. You'll have to imagine the tiny glow of lava in the far distance.

The end of the road.

 So instead, I went back up to the Jaggar museum overlook and saw the glow from the caldera. That was pretty cool as well.

More smoke from Kilauea, but the glow from the lava below is visible at night.

There's more to see at the park - maybe I'll go back while I'm here.