Off to the Big Island

The main island of Hawaii (the Big Island) is the one with the active volcano so it should be no surprise that this is where I planned we would spend most of our time.  I had the opportunity to visit Hawaii 2 years ago and spent the entire week on this island.

In college I went on a field trip to Hawaii and as a geology major was actually interested in the geology of the island and of course the volcano.  As fate would have it, Kilauea stopped erupting about 2 months before we arrived and started up about 4 months after I was there - and has been erupting ever since.  Two years ago I saw lava from about 3 miles away and took a helicopter ride over the flow but still never got very close.  I hoped to do better this time.

We landed in Kona and started driving around the bottom of the island on the way to the Hawaii Volcano National Park where we we staying.  The first stop was the Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park.  It is called a place of refuge and defeated warriors could come here to be safe (kind of like 'base' when you used to play tag).

Jenny got into the spirit of rest and relaxation and tried out one of the examples of how huts used to be built.

These were either to ward off evil spirits or to keep the birds and rabbits out of the garden.

Can you pick out Jenny?

Turtles also seemed to use this as a place of refuge and we found several of them meandering around the shallow waters near here.

One of the things we learned is that 94% of the life forms on Hawaii are unique to the islands.  Most of the vegetation was carried there by wind, waves, or wing (birds).  Other small animals were brought over by early settlers.  So I'm not exactly sure about the story for this fellow we found after leaving the park.  He was just standing in a field along the road.  And yes, it was real...

So off we continued... heading south....as far as we could go

 Here we are: as far south in the US as you can go. (I've also been as far north in the US as you can go but that is another story)

Of course, Jenny had to go just a little farther south. Not to mention scaring mom since that is about a 200 foot drop behind her.







We decided to come back another day to visit the green sand beach near by since it was still a couple of hours drive to the Volcano Park.

It was dark by the time we arrived but I still had to head to the crater rim which was just a mile up the road from our cabin.  The actual lava lake is not visible from the summit area because it is about 100 feet down from the edge.  But there are gases coming off of it constantly and in the dark the glow from the lava lights up the gas cloud.

I felt at home standing there looking out over active crater but it was about 45 degrees, windy, and starting to rain so time to call it a day.