On the 8th day of our journey we decided to head across the island once again to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This was one of the top day trips on our list when we arrived but we were trying to make sure the weather was as good as possible for our evening there so we pushed it back a little bit into the trip. Needless to say we were excited to finally get there!
KILAUEA VISITOR'S CENTER
Our first stop was at the Kilauea Visitor's Center. I would highly recommend that you begin your tour here. There is lots of information available inside as well as maps, helpful rangers, a gift shop and restrooms. I would plan on about a 15 minute stop minimum but it will help you get oriented for the rest of the time you are in the park.
CHAIN OF CRATERS ROAD
From the Visitor's Center, we headed down the Chain of Craters Road. It doesn't take long to figure out why it was named that way....
Believe me this photo doesn't do this crater justice....it was HUGE and amazing to see. All along the roadway there are large piles of lava and many interesting lava formations.
The most amazing thing was for the longest time there was nothing but lava to see. Everywhere you looked.....lava. And then......
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| View along Chain of Craters Road Hawaii Volcanoes National Park |
It is truly amazing to see how the plant life grows up through the lava...you would think nothing would grow but that just isn't the case.
Once you get to the end of Chain of Craters Road, the payoff is huge. There is parking along the roadway. Stop and pull over and follow the crowd of people headed toward the ocean. There is a small path that will take you directly to the edge of a cliff where you can see the Sea Arch.
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| Sea Arch at the end of Chain of Craters Road Hawaii Volcanoes National Park |
The rest of the road is blocked by a lava flow from a previous eruption. You can walk down the roadway. We walked a little ways but decided to turn back. The ocean views on one side and the volcano on the other is really an interesting contrast.
We then headed back up the Chain of Craters Road and headed toward our next stop
The Thurston Lava Tube
This was really a cool thing to do. There was a little bit of a walk from the parking area and some steps to get down to the Lava Tube but nothing strenuous. We took about 20 minutes to make the walk and check things out in the lava tube. It is a popular stop for bus tours but things move along pretty quickly...walkways are wide so many people can fit at one time.
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| Outside of Thurston Lava Tube Hawaii Volcanoes National Park |
We were behind an older lady who was terrified to go through the tube. In fact at one point she flat out refused to move forward because she couldn't see the end of it. It is not that long of a tube. There are lights inside and the pathways are very easy to navigate. Once you are about a third of the way through, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel (literally!) so it really isn't a scary trip at all. For smaller children you may want to warn them what's ahead but people of any age should do just fine.
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| Inside the Thurston Lava Tube Hawaii Volcanoes National Park |
Make sure you take your time through the lava tube...it's really a cool experience!
Crater Rim Drive
Once we left the Lava Tube Area we continued back past the Visitor's Center and onto Crater Rim Drive. Again the scenery changed and now we were surrounded by steam vents just arising out of the ground
If you have ever visited Yellowstone National Park this will remind you of that park!
Ever where you looked you were surrounded by reminders that you were standing on top of an active volcano!
Finally in the distance you could see the caldera of Kilauea.
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| Caldera of Kilauea |
After a quick walk around the area we hopped back into the car and headed to the Jagger Museum
THOMAS A. JAGGER MUSEUM
This is the area that you can best see the caldera of the volcano. If there is lava flowing you can see it here. Unfortunately there was no lava flow the day that we were there. We were really hoping to see the lava flowing into the ocean but that was not to be. However, the sights from the museum were still pretty amazing.
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| Caldera of Kilauea from Thomas A. Jagger Museum |
Give yourself plenty of time to take a look around this area. There is a very nice museum with lots of information and a gift shop. There are also very nice restrooms in this area. There are ramps from the parking lot to the museum so this area is very accessible.
Tip: Make sure that you go during the day to see the sights from the Thomas A. Jagger Museum but also stick around for the night time show! If you time your visit properly you can wait around for nightfall.
The night time is when this area really shines. However you have to give it time to come into view. The day that we were there it was very overcast with low cloud cover. We were waiting to see the glow from the molten lava inside the caldera and for quite a time we couldn't even see the caldera!! Plus it is REALLy cold here once the sun goes down. Luckily one of the rangers encouraged everyone to stick around that the night sky usually clears up nicely and we would still be able to get views.
Tip: Pack your winter coat (which you have from visiting Mauna Kea!) or bring a blanket when visiting the park at night. You will be very happy that you did!
All of a sudden after about an hour or so of waiting we were lucky enough to get this amazing view of the caldera!
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| Kilauea Caldera at Twilight |
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| Kilauea Caldera at Night |
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| Kilauea Caldera at night |
It really was an astounding thing to see and definitely worth the wait. If you make one day trip during your stay on the Big Island this would be the one that I would suggest!
After viewing the lava we headed back across the Island for the night. If you are going to do this day trip, plan on spending an entire day with the travel time. We left our resort by about 10:00 AM, stopped in Hilo for lunch and then headed to the park. This allowed us to be there for day and night time views. We left the park around 8:00 PM and it is about a 2 hour drive back to the resort so figure a good 12 hours and that was without any major hiking. We did stop at overlooks and pullovers and the lava tube for short periods of time but there really wasn't a lot of extra time. It is so worth the time and effort to get to the park though.....you will NOT regret it!
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