Hawai'i - Big Island Part Two

Our second day in Hawai'i was a little more relaxed than our whirlwind first day. After another early rise (jet lag is fun) we drove to a few beaches on the southern tip of the island and finished the day at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. First up was the black sand beach, Punalu'u.

Here's a cat that lived near our cottage. Paul named him Mortimer and David looked for him every day.

National Park Sign. Check!

Black sand beach made of lava rock. You wanna visit these early...before they are like burning charcoals.

After reading this sign, all David could think about doing if he saw a turtle was riding it.

Cute pond across from the black sand beach.

Beautiful flowers near black sand beach

Lots of great vistas on the south shore of the Big Island

After the black sand beach, we drove further Southwest to see the green sand beach. This beach is a bit off the beaten path and requires either a dusty 2 mile (each way) hike or chartering a 4WD vehicle from the entrance. We opted for the later to save time and effort (hey it's hot and the terrain is rough down here). We were a little concerned they oversold the need for a 4WD, but these were the worst roads we've ever seen... like a crazy theme park ride. Steep dirt rutted roads with huge boulders. The beach itself sits in a little bay that you have to climb down to from above. The green coloration is due to a higher concentration of the mineral olivine. It doesn't show up very well in the photos, but when you hold it in your hand it's very impressive!

The green sand beach (Papakolea) is located right next to the southernmost point in the United States, Ka Lae (southpoint). We walked around and got some great views of the ocean battering the coastline. There was a surf advisory in place our entire visit to the Big Island and the seas were rough, but really cool to watch!

Behold! The green sand beach! Sometimes the waves completely covered the beach. The rocky cove setting was really neat. 

Green olivine crystals

David wore the right shirt for the beach

Not an overstatement! The ride was $15/person round trip so a pretty good deal.

Waves crashing at South Point, the southernmost point in the 50 United States

Tide pools and inlets abound. We saw some colorful fish and lots of crabs.

Rough seas this week in Hawai'i

After lunch at the southernmost restaurant we visited the southernmost bakery...I see a pattern here.

After lunch we drove back towards the national park to go on a hike and check out some of the volcanic features. We saw some steam vents spewing a sulfur/carbon dioxide mix and took a hike along the rim of the outer crater. Every once in a while you'd walk into a steam vent and get a rude little 100*F blast of stinky air.  Fun!

Walking around we saw lots of interesting plants and birds. Unfortunately, we had little sense for what was endemic and what was invasive. So many plants and animals in Hawai'i have been brought here by people since European/Western contact. For example, the Big Island is now home to coqui frogs, a loud little critter we recall from Puerto Rico. They were brought here by mistake very recently, in 1988. After our hike, we went out to the Thurston Lava Tube. This lava tube has a bigger diameter than the Kaumana Cave, but wasn't as interesting overall.

The avid outdoorsman heeds all warnings and cautions

Lots of colorful flora in the national park

A fiddlehead fern

Another weird plant. Not sure what this one is.

Stay away from steaming cracks

Bright yellow sulfur deposits at the steam vents

Yet another colorful flower

There were a lot of random steam vents along the trail

The biggest vent of them all, in the Kilauea caldera

This time it's *multiple* colorful flowers

In the Thurston lava tube

Of course Paul tried a few Hawaiian beers at the end of the day

On our last full day on the Big Island, we woke up early and spent some more time in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We drove the 19-mile-long Chain of Craters Road until its abrupt end at a lava flow from the 1980s. It was really cool to see multiple flows from various decades (and centuries) cutting across the landscape as we drove our way 4,000ft down to the sea.

Near the end of the road, we went on a short (but hot) hike to see some petroglyphs carved by native Hawaiians. There are around 16,000 carvings here. Most of them represented families and new children. Others represented scenes from daily life, animals, etc. Very cool!

Look closely and you'll see two people hiking across the lava flows on the Kilauea Iki trail

We also drove the 8-mile long Hilina Pali Road. It's only one lane wide and curves across various lava flows. We only saw three other cars the whole drive out and back.

The overlook at the end of the Hilina Pali drive

Back on Chain of Craters Road, we stopped at the "Devil's Throat" crater. It's unmarked, but listed in one of our guidebooks. Squint and you can see David jumping on the other side!

David on some old lava

The dark black area isn't a shadow - it's a relatively recent lava flow

Lava close-up

A turtle petroglyph

There are over 16,000 petroglyphs in the area. We hiked out to an area with a lot of them.

At the end of the road sits the 80-ft tall Holei sea arch. Here it is without a wave...

...and here it is with a wave! The surf was huge.

You walk the last 1/2 mile on the road - and here's why. A lava flow that started in 1986 (with more flows as recently as 2013) completely blocks the road for several miles.

It's a really surreal sight

I guess it's time to turn around and head back up the road!

After leaving the park and grabbing a quick lunch, we drove to the eastern part of the Big Island - an area called Puna. It's known for a bohemian vibe and a smattering of beaches. The current lava flow has encroached upon a subdivision in Puna, and is threatening to cover the main road into the area.

Kapoho tide pools - we walked/swam around these for a while and saw some coral and fish

David making some fish friends in the tide pools

A beautiful rocky beach in the evening

We really enjoyed our time on the Big Island. It has such a diverse set of attractions - active lava, stunning beaches, huge mountains, historic and cultural sites, and some pretty great weather. Our next stop is Kauai, the garden island. We'll be staying in Hanalei Bay on the north shore.

Welcome to Hawai'i! First day on the Big Island

Cue the ukulele, blend the pina coladas and bust out the sunscreen; David and Paul are heading to Hawai'i! Paul has been wanting to go to Hawai'i to rack up state number 50 since last fall's trip to North Dakota. Well, check "visit all 50 states" off the bucket list! Hawai'i is state number 44 for David, which is not-too-shabby, but still a ways off the prize. Oklahoma and Alaska, watch out.

For our trip to Hawai'i, we've planned out about 9 days of activities across three of the islands. First stop is three full days on Big Island (Hawai'i), followed by four days on Kauai and two on Oahu to visit Honolulu.

We both like geology, so our visit to the Big Island was mostly focused on the active and previous volcanic activity, right down to where we elected to stay on the island... in the town of Volcano. We found a cottage using AirBnB within a few miles of the active Kilauea volcano and Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. One of the advantages of staying in Volcano is the altitude. Daytime temperatures didn't rise above 80*F and overnight lows were in the upper 50s*F - beautiful sleeping weather for a state that is light on air-conditioning (electricity is expensive here).

The Big Island is a little bit smaller than Connecticut. We visited most of the eastern half of the island.

We arrived in Volcano after 9 PM Hawai'i time, which is around 3 AM Eastern. Despite being exhausted, instead of going to bed we drove over to the National Park and checked out the nighttime view of the Kilauea crater. The crater has an active pool of lava so the steam glows red in the evenings. It was a breathtaking start to our tour of Hawai'i.

Kilauea Crater at Night

The next morning we got up and drove to the Hilo Farmer's Market before a 9:30AM scheduled helicopter tour of the volcano. Due to our late arrival the night before, the rental car agency was low on stock and hooked us up with a convertible! Glamour shots abounded. We never would spring for a convertible on a trip, but we'll admit that in a place like Hawai'i, you might almost get your money's worth!

Volcano cottage...with convertible glamour shot! Our cottage was in the rainforest.

Gratuitous convertible glamour shot

The farmer's market was right in downtown and was filled with beautiful produce and Hawaiian goodies. Hawai'i is such a melting pot of Polynesian, Asian and American heritage. It's really interesting to see how local food and crafts reflect that diversity. We couldn't help ourselves and picked up a couple steamed pork buns and fresh spring rolls for breakfast.

Hilo Farmer's Market

So much produce...

Mango, Pineapples and Bananas! Oh my!

We just throw these into a blender to make a pina colada, right?

After the farmer's market, we went back to the Hilo airport for our helicopter ride out to the volcano. Right now, this is your only real chance of seeing lava in Hawai'i (short of illegally walking through the jungle for miles off the beaten path and possibly asphyxiating or lava-ing yourself to death). We'd highly recommend the ride to anyone visiting the island. We passed over macadamia nut farms en route to the active lava flows. Here we could see where the lava was currently burning the forest on its route down the mountain. We also hovered over a partially exposed lava tube where there was a crack in the ceiling exposing the flowing magma beneath. Finally, we ascended high over Kilauea crater and looked down into the lava pool we had seen the night before. From way up here we were even able to glimpse the summit of Mauna Kea (the highest peak on the island at nearly 14,000ft) with its array of around a dozen telescopes. Very cool! On the ride back we passed by a cascading waterfall and then followed the coastline. Hawai'i is lush, green and beautiful!

David's calm demeanor hides an intense anxiety of being inside this flying deathtrap!

Paul's rearing and ready to go! The yellow pouch is a life jacket. I guess it would keep us afloat in lava?

Volcano 1 - Forest 0

This is what a huge swath of the southeastern side of the Big Island looks likes. Multiple lava flows have killed the forest.

A big steam vent

Steam vent on Venus....nope! Looks like it could be though!

You can see magma flowing underneath the surface of this collapsed ceiling.

Here's an old crater. Craters come and go frequently over the Hawaiian hot spot.

Badass 

Kilauea crater from way above.

You can see the lava pool in the crater from above.

Bonus Waterfall! There was a chain of beautiful waterfalls to the northwest of Hilo.

Big Island shoreline north of Hilo

Helicopter ride off the bucket list! That's our pilot, Koji.

After the volcano helicopter tour we visited the Imiloa Astronomy Center to prep ourselves for our afternoon drive up to the observatories on Mauna Kea. The center has a new 3-D planetarium as well as exhibits on space, physics and cultural exhibits on how Polynesians came to reside in Hawai'i in the 5th century AD. It's a great museum and if you happen to be in Hilo you should drop in. The planetarium show on the night sky over Hawai'i was helpful for stargazing later that evening.

3-D planetarium glasses at the Imiloa Astronomy Center

After the astronomy center, we stopped by a local dive for some lunch. Cafe 100 is known for its multiple varieties of "loco" cuisine.  Basically, "loco" just means a dish with rice, gravy and a fried egg. Paul tried the local favorite, "loco moco" which is a hamburger patty as the base. So far, Hawaiian food has been interesting. You can tell it has roots in the fact that getting fresh fruits, vegetables and grains used to be a challenge. Many of the "comfort" foods use processed meats, are deep fried and don't really come with much of anything green. Hawaiian food is like southern food without the vegetables! Prices are high, overall. Maybe 25-40% above what you'd pay for something similar on the mainland. This applies to grocery purchases as well.

Loco Moco - hamburger patty with gravy over rice with a fried egg on top.

Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to take our little convertible to the top of Mauna Kea due to steep rutted dirt roads near the summit, so we traded in our car for a 4WD SUV for the afternoon and took off towards the stars! The Big Island is really neat in that the elevation changes are so gradual you hardly know you're climbing. You start off near the ocean at 80*F then all of a sudden you're up 9,000 feet and it's around 60*F outside.

Just outside Hilo on the way up Mauna Kea we stopped at an old lava tube from an eruption of Mauna Loa (the other great volcano on the island, just about a hundred feet shorter than Mauna Kea but nearly 100 times the mass) that threatened to destroy Hilo in the late 1800s. The tube is called the Kaumana Cave and features incredibly smooth walls and really great coloration.

Paul likes to climb into things...the camera flash lights up this room well, which is otherwise very very dark.

The lava tube collapsed in the middle exposing the tunnel

The cooled lava was very smooth to the touch and full of obvious flow patterns

In Hawai'i, life always find a way of creeping into the darkest of locations.

After the lava tube, we continued our drive up Mauna Kea. We stopped at the visitor center at 9,000 feet to acclimate a bit before driving up the final almost 5,000 feet to the summit at 13,803 feet. When measured from the base of the sea floor,  Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on Earth (take that Mount Everest).

As we climbed, the scenery changed dramatically, from lush forests to plains and finally to alpine tundra. The high plains reminded us a lot of the Peruvian landscape outside of Cusco. All said and done the drive takes about an hour and a half. It's pretty amazing to think you can cover that much of a difference in terrain in such a short time. In the winter, the road can be closed due to snow. Fortunately for us, the high temperature up on the summit that day was around 50*F so it was cold, but not unbearable.

Low altitude forests

High altitude plains...not the image of Hawai'i most people have in mind.

Here's the monstrosity of an SUV that replaced our little black convertible. No glamour shots here, people.

Are we in Peru?! No! Hawai'i!

Old volcanic craters on Mauna Kea

This is why we needed the 4WD. Fun unpaved tundra-like road through the clouds. No snow, thankfully.

The main reason people summit Mauna Kea is to watch the sunset then star gaze a bit on the way down. The scientists don't like you hanging around on top messing up their observations, so shortly after sunset we were shooed away by a park ranger. Mid-way down to the visitor center at 9,000 feet, we pulled over and did a little stargazing. We have never seen so many stars! David even saw 2 shooting stars! All-in-all, not a bad first day in Hawai'i!

Telescope on top of the world. The clouds often pool below the summit of the mountain.

We packed warmer clothes for this one few hour trip in Hawai'i.

The clouds look like crashing waves

David was only willing to jump once or twice at this high altitude.

Sunset over the telescopes

Sun setting behind the clouds in the distance

Clear, crisp, dry air lets you see forever!

The mountain in the background is actually on Maui!

Here come the reds and pinks - a beautiful sunset.

This picture does it no justice, but if you click you can see the Milky Way.

Steam vents, lava tubes, waterfalls, sunset from a giant volcano - our first day in Hawai'i did not disappoint! Stay tuned for more volcanic adventures on the Big Island and some fun in Kauai and Oahu.