Volcano Power

Beautiful beaches, waterfalls, fantastic weather, flowers, good food and lovely resorts are the norm for the Hawaiian Islands.  What sets the Big Island apart is its active volcano!  You probably remember in 2018 when Kilauea sent a river of lava, destroying 700 homes.  About 13 1/2 square miles of the island were repaved with lava. 

I secretly hoped that we would get to see some lava flowing but it wasn't to be.  We did enjoy two great hiking days exploring Kilauea, the most active volcano in the world.  I think the photos prove that something is still going on under the ground. 

Look behind George and you can clearly see the steam vents.

Rain has seeped into the ground and is then heated by Kilauea and comes out as steam. It was raining which made things even steamier!

This area is called the Sulphur Banks and is colorful but a bit stinky, although not as bad as some areas in Yellowstone. 

These are some warning that you don't see on every hike!

I love how determined plants somehow make their way through the lava.

And speaking of plants, the whole area around the lava is the lushest rain forest you can imagine.

One unusual phenomenon that we learned about are the so called 'lava trees'. These are formed when a rush of molten lava makes its way through a forest.  Rather than knocking down all the trees in its path, the lava's sudden contact with the tree's cooler, moist trunk allows a thin layer layer to cool around it.  After the initial rush of lava passes and the 'tide' goes down, the semi cooled lava that has accumulated around the doomed tree trunk remains.  Full disclosure, I didn't take this photo and we didn't see any quite as cool as this but I decided to include it because it is interesting.  

We could clearly see that what is in front of George is a tree trunk but it has been knocked down.  If we ever go here again, I definitely want to see the erect lava trees.
  

One of the funnest things we did was to hike down and across the caldera from a 1959 eruption.

It was quite hot but we made it down, across and then back UP the other side!  

The trail guide said to plan for 2 -3 hours and this geriatric couple made it in 2 hours! Yes we did feel quite proud of yourselves!

Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature!

From the 2018 eruption....the road was so badly damaged that it is now closed.  Just ahead of the area where you could walk, the destruction was even worse.

I'm glad we made the long drive to the Hawaiian Volcano National Park twice so that we got to really experience Kileau.

We put 1247 miles on our rental car over 10 days!