Day 7 on Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2009
1
7
Trip End
Dec 04, 2009
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
Thursday, December 3, 2009
We took the cross island road as a short cut which runs up between the two flanks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, so there was some huge elevation gain (we took the same road last night for the observatory trip). The morning sky was so clear, you could see the observatories at the summit from the road.
We stopped at two waterfall state parks, Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. The eastern side of the island is like a rain forest, so there was all kinds of neat birds and plants. It was really humid though. We even stopped a lava tube along the way, even though there is another one in the National Park.
Zach was able to eat his first "loco moco" at a diner we stopped at in Hilo along the way. It's a hamburger patty and an egg served over rice that's then smothered in gravy. Ick, he said he plans on making them often when we get back.
As we drove closer to the active volcano, the air got really hazy which apparently is called "vog" around here (volcanic fog). It almost looked like Washington! The visitors center was really smelly, like a combination of sulfur and burning wood. Apparently air quality was really poor today since the winds had shifted, and a good portion of the park was closed off, and guided tour by the rangers were even canceled. Even Zach and I were sort of coughing.
We spent most of the day driving around the park in the car, which was eerily beautiful. Many of the lava flows we were driving on were only around 20-30 years old. The long drive down the coast stops abruptly where lava has simply closed the road down. We walked out to one of the newer lava fields where we could get a neat shot of the steam plume rising out of the air where the newest lava was dumping out into the ocean. We were about 5 miles away from any actual molten lava though unfortunately, and even the county park which overlooks it was closed down from the poor air quality. Even the visitors center area is still hot from lava, less than a mile down the road there's a ton of steam vents openings where smelly steam is constantly rising out of the ground. Apparently it's caused by ground water reaching the hot areas which then turns it into steam.
It was getting late by the time we were finished with the park, and the vog made it even darker. We headed back on the LONG drive that lead along the southern and western coast. We spent longer at the park than we expected, so unfortunately for this trip we missed seeing some of the neato beaches which have black and green sand which we planned on hiking to initially.
We got back to our room after dark, and we had one last fancy dinner at the hotel restaurant. Tomorrow is our last official day in Hawaii. Our flight back to Honolulu (with an hour layover) before heading back to Seattle isn't until 8:45 PM.
