Volcano National Park - Part I

As we flew into Hilo we could see the two enormous volcanos, snow covered Mauna Loa (13,677 ft) and Mauna Kea (13,796 ft) piercing the clouds. If you want you can take a tour to the top of Mauna Kea and play in the snow assuming you can handle the low oxygen concentration. We did not do this.

Looking at the caldera from the Volcano House. The hole you see before you is a smaller pit (see last picture of this posting for a closeup) inside the caldera of Kilauea which itself is 2.5 miles long, 2 miles wide and 400 ft deep. Crater Rim drive follows around the edge of this bigger caldera.

Closeup of the sulfur crusted lava 'moonscape' in Volcano National Park. The blurriness on the center left of the photo is steam escaping from crevices in the ground. As you look out on the horizon you can see these steaming vents by their white cloud plumes. Rain water trickles down into the ground to become heated by the lava below and then it rises out of the ground in areas around the park.

The bright red flowers of the Ohia lehua ( Metrosideros macropus). As you can see here, these are the first plants to colonize the barren lava. Their bright red flowers are full of nectar and are an important source of food for the native bird species of Hawaii. The ground here is covered in small bits of lava called Pele's tears. See the next photo for a closeup.

If you scoop up the small pebbly lava all around this area you will find this smooth lava known as Pele's tears. This unique shape of lava is formed when the jets of molten lava spewed up into the air and rapidly cool as they rain down. This area was obviously downwind when the pit crater lake exploded over 80 years ago since the ground is covered with this stuff.

A panaromic view of the pit crater Halema'uma'u on Kilauea. The bright white/yellow splotches are sulfur residues. At one time about 100 years ago this was a lava lake. Then in 1924 the lake drained causing a massive steam explosion spewing steam and debris for miles around. Notice the brightly colored offerings made to the spirits of Hawaiian relatives. The Hawaiians believe offerings of food and beverage must be left out for the spirits of their relatives so the spirits stay around and not drift off and feel forgotten.