Hilo side of the Big Island

Monday and Tuesday we spent the days wandering around the Eastern side of the Big Island. Our launching point was Hilo. We started our mornings with a great cuppa from a local coffee shop. Given that so much coffee is grown on this island you'd think there would be more local shops but actually didn't find too many.

We love visiting National Parks and try and visit them whenever we can. We spent the better part of both Monday and Tuesday at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Our first stop was to the the Kilauea Caldera. Kilauea is one of two active volcanoes in the world right now. (As a side note, I actually saw the other one, Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines when I was flying from Adelaide to Singapore a couple of weeks ago.) Kilauea last erupted in January 1983 and there is still lava flowing from that eruption. The days we were at the park we couldn't drive all the way around the crater rim because there was too much sulfur gas being emitted from the top.

All around the area are a bunch of steam vents. It is really interesting to see the steam coming up from the ground and to know that it is because there is super hot lava just a few miles below the surface of the earth...also a little unsettling.

Since we weren't able to drive all the way around the Crater Rim Drive we decided to head down the Chain of Craters Road. This is a road that takes you from the top of Kilauea down to the ocean. Along the way you see a number of craters from previous eruptions. A lot of them along this route are from the late 1960s and early 1970s. You can tell the difference with the age of the lava. In the picture below the darker colors in the center are from the more recent lava flow:

In addition, this area has two different types of lava. The first is very smooth and to both Alan and I it looks like the top of freshly cooked brownies.
The second type of lava is choppier looking. It reminds me of a wet dirt and mulch mixture:

Near the bottom of this road there is a short hike out to an area where there are petroglyphs carved into the hardened lava. They were pretty interesting to see but we both agreed that the petroglyphs in Utah were much more interesting.

At the end of the Chain of Craters Road there is lava...the latest eruption in the 80s sent lava down into the ocean and it swallowed up the road that used to run along the coast.

Yep, that is in actual road sign that has been forever stuck in place by the dried lava. Pretty amazing to see the effect that mother nature can have on humans everyday lives. A few more photos from this area of the park:


The waters around Hawaii are an amazing shade of blue. I haven't seen water that color before. The lava was also so interesting to see. It makes an area look so desolate but is really unique when you get up close to it. The rock itself is so light in weight. It also has amazing colors and creates such unique formations when it dries.
At the end of the day on Monday we drove to the Royal Gardens subdivision area. This is the place where the most recent lava flow came through and destroyed almost an entire subdivision. The good part is that nobody lost their life since it took almost two years for the lava to crawl down the mountain prior to hitting this area. They allow you to walk out to the ocean to see the red hot lava flowing into the ocean. Except on Monday night...apparently after almost two years of lava flowing into the ocean at this point...it stopped flowing 48 hours prior to our arrival...so, unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see any hot lava flowing. Oh well...maybe next time...