Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks, Big Island of Hawaii

We left the timeshare early this morning because we had a long drive ahead of us to get to the Hapuka Unit Volcano National Park near South Point, approximately a 2-hour drive away from Waikoloa or where we were staying.  We gassed up our car past Kailua Kona just in case there wasn't any gas stations to be had on our long drive.  We passed through some beautiful scenery. Lots of narrow roads with steep, scary cliffs down to miles and miles of ocean.  The air was not that clear on the drive south. This may have been due to the volcano sulfur in the air.  The further south we drove it reminded me of any of the Caribbean islands with similar vegetation, similar looking homes, narrow curvy roads, and some ramshackle housing. 

We arrived at the Hapuka Unit of Volcano National Park which is only open Thursdays to Sunday.  It is a bit more of an underwhelming situation compared to the more famous Volcanoes National Park entrance up on Kilauea.  There are a few outbuildings a visitor center and public washrooms and some information on the numerous trail heads.  We had to pick from seven different trails and I had already kind of narrowed it down before we got there and we chose Trail 2 which would take us over the more varied landscapes.  

Trail 2 starts by walking up the side of an old 1886 cinder cone or a volcanic vent.  This cone is now covered with grass and you wouldn't even know it's a cinder cone.  A more recently created cinder cone is black and looks very lunar and volcanic. They're scattered throughout the island.  But this isn't a rain forest area, so the lava quickly breaks down and turns into a sandy loamy soil that quickly can sustain life.  

Gorgeous green moss growing on the black lava stone.

The trail turns into more of a lava flow with it's black traditional looking rock and you can also see some broken lava tubes, some caves and even a tree hole. 

This is a tree hole created when the lava came and burned the tree down and it leaves a impression of the hole that is left over.  There is now a small green tree growing in this living fossil.

Lava field

Different colors of lava.

This lava flow is already sustaining life.

Old collapsed lava tube.

The lunar landscape of the lava flow is very pushed up looking and very rugged and is already growing many trees.  Then the trail finishes off on a wide road where you can see the different colors of sand that the lava flows have brought to the area and they consist of green, red and black. So I very much felt like I was on the Christmas Trail. 

Greenish sand that has broken down from the lava rock.

Now greeny gold in color.

Now you can see broken down red earth which was originally deposited from the lava flow as rust colored lava.

It is hard to believe that a volcano erupted and spewed lava in 1886 in this bucolic country photo.

It leads to the very end of the trail rising up a steep cinder cone to gorgeous views that were a little hindered by the unclear day, most likely do to Mount Kilauea.  I really had no idea that lava was any color other than black or brownie black. But on this island there is a green sand beach and you can see the green broken down sand and the same red color as the earth on Prince Edward Island. Most likely due to volcanic lava flows as well.

This is a 30 foot cut bank of red lava rock.

At the top of the cinder cone.

At the bottom of the cinder cone.  Darren is right at the top.

We made it back to the car after about a 1-hour walk of two miles and continued on our way along the coastline to Mount Kilauea. The second entrance to Volcanoes National Park, approximately 40 miles away.

We passed mini macadamia nut orchards along the way and tons of farms of different fruits and vegetables.  I did not know that it takes 300 lb per square inch to crack a macadamia nut.  That sounds labor intensive.

We arrived at the main gate of Volcanoes National Park and paid our 30 American per vehicle to enter.  We lucked out and found a parking space right in front of the Visitor Center. We checked that out, there are things to buy and things to see and washrooms.  We continued on and did a 1 mile hike to the Sulfur Banks and Steam Vents which were very interesting and a nice leisurely little hike that wasn't too busy.  

Lava tubes are all over the Big Island of Hawaii in various shapes and sizes.

Steam is coming up everywhere.

Sulfur was coming out of this area and it reeked.

The Hawaiian Orchid native to the this island is growing everywhere among the strong sulfur smell.

We walked back to our car and drove up Crater Rim Drive West and stopped at the first Lookout to see down into the crater with the steam coming out.  There was no lava evident because the last eruption was 3 days ago and they were expecting another eruption in 2 to 3 days.  

The Crater of Kilauea behind us.

This was a highly interesting poster.

Ever-present rising steam.

In 2018 the Crater dropped 500 feet to form this caldera and this activity created a 5.0 on the Richter Scale.

We continued on our drive to Kilauea overlook and then Uekahuna which means tallest overlook at 4,000 ft. Or the highest area of the rim on the crater.  In 2018 the Caldera collapsed and dropped over 500 ft. causing a mini earthquake in the area of 5.0 on the Richter Scale. 

We continued in the car and drove towards the Crater Rim Drive East to stop and look at the Kilauea Iki Overlook which was a super impressive smaller caldera than Kilauea Crater.  You can walk to the bottom of this crater and literally be in the bowels of a non active crater. This crater is just beside Kilauea. We wanted to do this but we were going to run out of daylight on the drive back so we had to pass, maybe next time. 

I thought this caldera was obviously a lot prettier than the last because you can get so much closer and you can hike down to it as well.

There are people in the middle of the Crater, I had to zoom in on them.  It was a long hike down and back up.  You could even hike back to the Visitor Center through this Crater.

We continued on towards Thurston Lava Tube.  You must park your car and then walk down a very steep walkway to the mouth of this huge lava tube that you can drive a car through.  It is lit but not well lit. I tried to turn on my cell flashlight that didn't do very much to light it up either.  There is water dripping down continuously because we are in a rain forest and the water does seep through so that kind of scares you as you walk through this dark tunnel.  This was formed in one of the last lava flows.  We made our way out to the end of it and walked around and looped back to the parking lot.  

This was fascinating.

We continued on to Pu'upuai Overlook but that was boring and I just popped out of the car and looked at it and got back in.  We then parked at the Devastation parking area and we got out and walked a .5 mile Trail and then .5 back. This Devastation Trail is where volcanic ash descended on an entire Forest and burnt it to the ground and most of it was disintegrated.  You get to see the devastation that's left over.  It is now starting to produce life with these little pink flowers everywhere. 

This use to be a lush forest.

Life is returning to the devastation.

We continued to drive down Chain of Craters Road which is a 19 mile long road so that would be 38 mile round trip down to the ocean.  We decided to do the first 4 miles of it which we did see a few different things such as the numerous craters from the past and upheavals in the asphalt where unsettled ground has lifted up. 

This was our second time visiting Volcanoes National Parks. I did not even have to use my inhaler for my asthma this time.  I did last time and I found that I was having a lot of trouble breathing the last time and that's most likely because there was an ongoing eruption when we were there over 20 years ago. No eruption and much easier on the breathing this time around.

It was a 2-hour drive back home looping around the other way back trough Hilo and then cross country on the Saddle Highway in between the two volcanoes to Wikoloa and our Resort.  Lots of driving today but it was well worth it to see Volcanoes National Parks.  It is a must-see if you ever come to the big Island of Hawaii.