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| Our view from the balcony. |
We were up early (startling as that may sound for those who know me well) and walked to Island Java Lava for breakfast. This is Kona country so our first taste of the legendary coffee. It's a deeper taste than the Maui coffee but not bitter or burnt.
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| Big mugs of Kona coffee because refills are not free. |
After breakfast we got ready for our trip to Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park. Since we had driven from Hilo (east side) to Kona (west side) by the north shore route we decided on the south shore route. Eighty-two miles, over two hours of drive time. Expecting lots of traffic for a Saturday morning but surprisingly it was very light. A lovely day for a drive.
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| Bob came all the way to Hawaii to get his "Senior Pass" now that he is 62. Now he gets in to all the National Parks, Historical Sites and Monuments for free. |
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| The smoke behind us is from the lava lake in the Crater. |
When we arrived the caldera lava lake only had one 800 foot wide spatter zone. Fortunately the surface had risen above the line of sight level from the crater. If it sinks below 70 feet visitors only see a glow on the smoke. The Jaggar Museum Observation platform is about 1 mile away. The closer wooden platform was closed and burned.
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| It's a much more impressive sight through binoculars. |
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| This is the 800 foot lava lake. |
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| Pele's hair. A sample of lava that truly looks like hair. As it shoots out it gets thinner and thinner. |
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| Giant fern. |
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| A little perspective of how big the fern fiddles are. |
The walk down to the lava tube was through a tropical forest. We are not familiar with most of the trees in Hawaii or the song birds we could hear. Bob did finally get a look at one bird, a bright red Honeycreeper.
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| I am standing at the mouth of a lava tube. |
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| We are not touching the sides of the lava tube. |
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| Mauna Ulu volcanic cone in the distance |
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| Just above the hat shadow is the petroglyph. |
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| This is the same as above and to the right. Some petroglyphs are very hard to see. |
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| A few actually look humanoid. |
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| Walking back to the car (that tiny whitish blob between the mounds at the horizon). |
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| Sea arch. |
We drove the Rim Trail to the Sea Arch. The remainder of the road has been closed to vehicle traffic due to lava flow. A different road from the opposite direction also stops leaving an eight mile gap between the two sides. The other road can be hiked or biked to the "fire hose" lava which is pouring into the ocean. From the Sea Arch area we could see the rising plume of steam. We decided to stay until after sunset to see "the glow" and headed back towards the Visitor's Center. There is a hotel and restaurant called Volcano House (very clever) with views of the crater. As we were eating we could only see smoke and gradually the glow appeared. After dinner we drove back to the Jaggar Museum.
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| What a surprise! A second opening to the Gates of Hell. Two spatter sections from the lava lake. They were really churning out the lava. |
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| And suddenly, off to the far left just behind the outcrop is a third spatter area. Amazing. Even with these three vents the activity was stunningly beautiful in the Hawaiian night. |
Sorry for the delay in posting this on Sunday morning. The heat, sun, hiking and three long drives exhausted us. By the time we arrived back at the condo (after 10pm) we had just enough energy to takes showers and go the bed.
