On to the Volcano

Lava flow from Kilauea's Pu'u 'O'o Vent as it enters the sea in an eruption of steam and light at night, taken from the look out point at the end of Highway 130.

Steam from Halema'uma'u Crater rises up out of Kilauea's Caldera behind Emily and the girls, take at Jagger Museum.

From Dan: Yesterday we went to visit the "Drive-Up" volcano, Kilauea. We spent about 6-7 hours total between the Park and the nighttime viewing area where the lava is entering into the ocean and at night you see the glow of the lava as the steam rises up. It is an amazing sight.

We started our Volcano adventure by going to the Jagger Museum which is currently the end of the line of the Crater Rim Drive. From there you can see the Caldera and the Halema'uma'u Crater. The crater is currently venting huge amounts of steam and is quite impressive. From the viewing area you can see the entire caldera, which is currently about 2 miles across.

We then ventured down the the Steam Vents where you are at the edge of the caldera and can see steam coming out of cracks in the earth, both in the side of the caldera, and all around you as you hike along the edge. Our next stop was Kilauea Iki Crater. This crater was from an eruption in the 50's. You can, we didn't, actually walk out onto this crater.

Continuing on our Journey, we then went to the Thurston Lava tube. You can actually walk through this tube where Lava used to flow. It is really cool to be walking through a lava tube.

After that we starter our drive down the Chain of Craters Road. This is where you drive through lava fields, some as recent as the 70's and by many formerly active craters. You drop almost 4000 feet in about 19 miles of driving. At some points you feel like you are on the edge of the world and could just drop right into the ocean. The view of Pacific and volcanic plain leading into the ocean from the road is amazing. On this journey we stopped at the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs, by hiking for 1.5 miles over an old lava flow and then down to the Sea Arch. The view of the Sea Arch is most impressive because you can look straight down the volcanic cliff to the ocean, which is quite dangerous and unforgiving there. There is 2000 miles of open ocean to build up some strong waves on the east shore of Hawai'i.

After that was our 2 hour drive to view the lava entering the ocean. Ironically, the view point is only 10 miles south of where the road to the Sea Arch ends, but due to Lava Flows from teh 80's until now, the road is wiped out. We had to drive up and out of the park and around to the other side of the flow. Then, we had to hike, in the dark, with flashlights, over lava flows to view the Volcano.

Over all, the day and the Volcano was amazing.

From Alex: At the volcano we drove to as small museum that overt looked the main big crater and little internal crater. Then we drove on to see some smock holes. They are holes in the ground that smoke from the volcano comes out of. Then we went to a big tubey holey thing formed by lava. It’s called a lava tube. We walked through half of it that was lit then turned on our flash lights and went into a dark section. After the lava tubes we went to see things called petro glyphs. We had to hike over a lava field to get there. The petro glyphs are carvings in the lava or rock. We saw people made of lines and dots. Then we drove on to the stone sea arch. The stone sea arch is a natural arch of lava rock carved by waves. Then we went to see reddish, orangeish, yellowish smoke where the lava hits the water. It was a long drive home and we didn’t get to the hotel until 11:30 but yester day was a fun day.

From Laura: We saw a volcano and got to walk through the lava hole!!! It was really cool. I had to buy a flashlight because it was really dark in one of them. They called the really dark lava hole The Dark Side. My flash light is silver. It’s really small, but it shines really brightly. We saw the lava going into the ocean and it made this big pinkish, orange-ish cloud up in the sky. I fell asleep in the car going home.