Visiting Pele

The three hour time difference had us waking up early today. After breakfast at our hotel, we drove South around the island toward Hilo and Kilauea Volcano. We drove through the southernmost town in the United States (Na'alehu, HI) and stopped to admire the Black Sand Beach. The kids loved the two green sea turtles that were resting on the beach. The black sand is amazing, but the beach is small.

We spent the rest of the day visiting Pele's realm inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. After a short visit to the visitor's center, we began our hike through the Kilauea Iki Crater (yes, actually inside a crater on the volcano). It was a four mile hike like any other we had ever done. Okay, just to specify, we aren't hiking fanatics, but we've done our fair share of hiking! The hike begins in a tropical rainforest....so, of course, it was pouring. We changed into swimwear and river sandals for this hike and just put our coats on over the top. This was a wise move....we were totally soaked after our 2+ hours on this adventure. Our first stop was a large (height, not length) lava tube. For those of you who have hiked the Ape Caves at Mount St. Helen's or the Lava Caves near Bend, Oregon as we have; this tube was not too impressive. But, hey, if you've never been in a lava tube, it is worth seeing.

We continued hiking through the rainforest until we dropped 460 feet down steep switchbacks from our starting elevation of over 400o feet. Just reading about this online... I don't know wheter most kids would like this hike. It is labled as "moderate" and it was difficult for the kids, but it was well worth the exhaustion. It was amazing to stand atop this lava from 1959. It is buckled and jagged inside the crater. There are several steam vents on the surface. If you don't believe that volcanic gasses are hot, just stick a hand near one of these vents. You could probably cook a hot dog (although I wouldn't recommend eating it after - these gases are toxic) in a minute or less. The crater itself is 2.4 miles wide and the most interesting part of the trip. It's like being on another planet inside there. The kids really enjoyed this part. We got to shed the soaking jackets inside the crater for a while before putting them back on for the steep climb back out of the crater.

After the hike, we drove to the Jaggar Museum above the Kilauea Caldera to see the active erruption. During the day, we were able to see a steam and gas plume coming out of the crater. We drove to Hilo for dinner and came back at night to see the most awesome "glow" from inside the volcano. The plume lights up at night from the lava lake that is inside the Halema'uma'u Crater. Of course, my camera does not have a good enough lense to capture what we saw, so I found a picture online. This is exactly what we saw.............it was spectacular (even in the rain)!