Hawaii Day Twelve

Today we headed for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Big Island really is big, and the park is fairly far from where we're staying on the west coast. Most guidebooks said this trip would take no less than three hours each way, so we were pleasantly surprised that it took us only slightly over two hours.

The eastern section of the island is much more rainy than the western side, resulting in very different terrain. The rainforest is just lovely.



We headed first for the lava tubes:



More rainforest on the hike back from the lava tubes:


Then we headed down Chain of Craters Road, which stretches 23 miles from the Kilauea crater rim (at 4,190 feet above sea level) down to the ocean, passing a number of craters formed from old eruptions and lava and steam vents.

Pauahi Crater:


Four thousand feet lower, where the lava flow meets the ocean.




We hiked down a long road no longer in use, as a lava flow covered the road in 2003.



The sign appropriately says "Road Closed."



The main Kilauea caldera, which has been continuously erupting since 1983:



We left the park for dinner at Kilauea Lodge, which was great, and then went back to the park to view the caldera at night.