Dec 8: Lava and Petroglyphs

On Dec. 8 we headed down the Chain of Craters road.  The craters were not photographically inspirational enough to put here (they were becoming overgrown with trees and plants again, so the craters aren't really visible in the pics), but we passed some super cool lava flows on the drive, and got out several times to wander over the landscape and take photos of the patterns.  I'll be super restrained and just show you a few:

Here's a spot where a lava flow covered the road and required it to be re-routed:

Down at the ocean, a natural bridge has eroded out from the new land formed by the lava flow:

A collapsed piece of lava where there had been an air pocket:

Tree growing out of a crack:

On the drive back up the road, we stopped at a spot where there were petroglyphs:

Dec. 7: Kilauea Caldera, Sulphur Banks, and the Devastation trail

Finally, we headed for the crater rim to see the active caldera.  Lucky for us, our visit coincided with an active phase where there was actual red lava hopping around inside.  You can't get super close to it due to the fumes being poisonous, but there are viewing stations at the rim where you can get a magnified look at the lava boiling inside the crater, with sheets of rock being formed and then reabsorbed into the lava.

After this we did the sulphur banks trail, where there were lots of steam vents:

The devastation trail was next.  This was the site of an explosive volcanic event around 100 years ago, I think?  (That's the hazard of waiting to long to blog, the details get fuzzy).  It wiped out the forest and left a large barren area:

Next up, some more lava flows and some petroglyphs ...

December 6: Volcanoes National Park

I'm in the midst of planning our next trip, which reminded me that I really have to finish blogging our last trip from last December!  It's been a busy year with several moves and new jobs, so it's not just laziness that has kept me from my blogging (although it probably is the main culprit).

The top thing on my list that I wanted to see in Hawaii was volcanoes.  Seeing the dormant one in Maui got weathered out, but we had a lot more time set aside to see the active one on Big Island, and to spend time in the National Park.

We started with the Kilauea Iki trail, which traverses a side crater of the Kilauea volcano.  Here we are looking down into the crater before descending into it from the forested rim:

I forget when the most recent volcanic event had happened here, but the cracks in the lava are still steaming.  It smells of sulphur:

Hiking across the crater, you can see other parties ahead of us:

Checking the temperature of one of the cracks (hot!)

Lava hills inside the crater:

Cracks in the lava hill:

It's a really interesting landscape, with the desert-like volcanic crater juxtaposed right against the tropical rainforest that surrounds it.

Looking back on the crater (most of which is in the far distance) as we hiked back up the other end of it:

From the trail heading back we got a glimpse of the steam from the active crater of the Kilauea volcano:

The trail back followed the forested rim of the crater:

After hiking this trail, we took a drive down one of the side roads towards the southern coast, and passed through some interesting landscape:

Coming up next, the active caldera of Kilauea ...