Breakfast at Dotty's was served with extremely crispy bacon rashers which could otherwise be described as burnt.
We drove back up Highway 11 to the National Park, stopping at Volcano village to get some water and post some postcards, on the way.
We revisited the Steaming Vents to get a closer look at Steaming Bluff, the series of vents at the northern side of the Kilauea Caldera that release steam and whiffy hydrogen sulphide, and to take in a bit more of that incredible view of the Caldera.
The next couple of hours were spent in the Jaggar Museum learning a bit more about volcanic activity, recent eruptions, equipment for sampling and analysing samples, lava products and seismic activity. The museum is a credit to the National Park and has the added bonus of being situated overlooking the Kilauea Caldera!
We returned to the Halema'uma'u Crater and walked further into the Caldera floor to the 1982 lava flow as we read that the walk was worth it to see different forms of lava and the earth's evident power, which it was, although we had chosen another hot day for walking on crater floors!
The Devastation Trail was also a nice little walk through a recovering forest that was devastated from the 1959 eruption at Kilauea Iki Crater where everything was covered in 8 feet of pumice. The trail led to Pu'u Pua'i and the Kilauea Iki Crater overlook. Before leaving the National Park we agreed to walk to the Byron Ledge Trail which was a further kilometre from the car park. It was a hot open trail that led the other side of Pu'u Pua'i and showed us a lot more of the devastated land. Some pheasants have made this area their home and graze through the plants which are reestablishing themselves. The birds are a bit shy and run away from the camera lens like chickens. The trail began to lead past some collapsed pits, which clearly detailed the layers of pumice, and then on down a steep slope to Byron Ledge. We admired the view from our present height and declined the invitation to descend to the trees lining the ledge of the caldera.
Leaving the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the last time we drove to Mauna Loa road and viewed the half dozen very impressive lava tree molds that clearly demonstrated the height of the lava flow that destroyed the forest. The land here has now fully recovered. But the tree molds, unlike those we saw at the Lava Tree State Park that are like statues rising above the ground, these are the ground but with gaping cylinders of depths up to 10 feet! It's like peering down into a disused well.
An 11 mile drive along a narrow yet very picturesque road led us to a height of 6,662 feet above sea level on Mauna Loa. We had hoped to get a good view of the Kilauea Caldera from this height but the air was too hazy to make any sense of it. However, Ian stumbled across some field equipment which we guessed must be the seismographs that we learned about at the Jaggar Museum. We wondered if our heavy footprints were registering on a seismograph somewhere and causing someone alarm! On the way back down to Highway 11 we stopped for photographs of an a'a lava river at Kipuka Iki and the beautiful lush green grass and tall forests as we descended further. There were more pheasants seen on the return journey, even those running down the road ahead of our car, but no mongoose families like on the ascent drive.
We returned to the Hilo Seaside Hotel where we found the parking to be a bit tricky. We had to make several trips around the nearby streets, including Banyan Drive where many banyan trees have been planted, including one planted by Richard Nixon, before giving in and asking the receptionist for advice. We wrote some more of our journals before a second meal at Cafe Pesto. More journal writing followed until my hand could write no more words tonight.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.