Kim says: Once we landed in Hilo (on the east side of the Big Island), we jumped on the shuttle to the rental car place to pick up our white PT cruiser (notice a trend?). We then headed to Volcano National Park, the best known attraction in this area. When we got to the park, we discovered lots of warning signs about the high levels of sulphur dioxide gas from the volcano - and in fact, part of the road was closed because of it.
That, of course, didn't stop us. We stopped at several places along to Crater Rim Drive to see the steam vents, sulphur banks, big craters, lava flows and a lava tube. The lava tube was especially cool. It's essentially a large tunnel made of lava, and we were able to walk all the way through it. We then headed south about 20 miles to the area where the active lava flow meets the ocean. The road is blocked off part at a certain point due to the lava flows in early 2000. We hiked along that lava for awhile and saw where the lava bluffs met the ocean.
Next we headed to Black Sand Beach, which is made of lava rocks and dust from the volcano. There were lots of tide pools there, and it was a neat place to spend some time.
We stopped to see two waterfalls on the way back to the ship (Pe'epe'e Falls and Rainbow Falls), but both were showing the effects of less rainfall than usual. Pe'epe'e Falls was neat though because you could hike down a narrow path to a rock bed in the middle of the stream by the falls.
Eric says: Another PT Cruiser? Ugh. Something smells funny. Cool stuff. More cool stuff. It's dark. I'm walking on lava! Haha - peepee falls!
No comments:
Post a Comment