Monday, April 25

Volcano Day! We spent today exploring Volcano National Park. In the morning, we started  by doing a 4+ mile hike down into ( and out of) the Kilauea Iki Crater - the down part was about 400 feet. Let's see how we started:

This is the main vent for the lava flow into the crater ( the reddish orange area):

 Further on down we got a good view of the plume from the Halema'uma'u Crater, inside the main Kilauea Caldera:

Now we are on the floor of the crater - and this is what it looks like:

In 1959 the floor of this crater was molten lava. Pretty solid now though - but distinctly warmer to the touch - especially when near steam vents.
The following is  close up of the main vent for the lava flow into the crater - which we saw from above earlier. The flow from this vent was sometimes liquid lava and sometimes a jet of lava and hot gas that went as high as 1,900 feet into the air:

Getting close to this vent meant that  Neal had us off the main trail by quite a bit- jumping over fissures in the crater floor and other such fun things:

 The plants were really trying to take hold in the most amazing little places-

 Another view from the crater floor which does a pretty good job of demonstrating the variety of lava flow,aggregation, and how some of the crystals ( white area- silica I think) ) can show up on the surface.

and a sense of the expanse of the base of the crater:

Then we were back on the trail to get back up to the top of the crater, and back in forest. This is a fern with the fiddle head area that has this very, very soft downy like fur- called pua. Very lovely, but does not last off of the plant, so we can't make you a pillow out of it.

 And our final photo of this walk and crater shows you the crater,the path across it, and the plume in the distance:

We then started out on the Chain of Craters Drive- which took us down to the ocean, by many craters, through the lava from the 1977 Lava Flow. Below is one of the first other craters that we saw, very old and inactive:

Down the road, looking across lava fields and downwards-

The lava can really make interesting forms and shapes-

At the end of the road, we are at the sea but, at a sea cliff. Check out this arch:

and then look the other way-

Pretty beautiful-- Frigate Birds were flying around, it was very windy, and also noticebly warmer than it had been up top.
We walked down the road, past where they would let you drive, to the true end of the road, for obvious reason:

One last lava shot, then we drove on home-

Home, where we have a really nice room -

Hot tub -

And lovely garden -

We hiked  long way today- between one walk and another-- so now it is bedtime for us- and you all are already asleep.  More tomorrow, when we join a bike tour of the volcano for a different view/experience.
Love, Deb/Neal