Volcano National Park, Hawaii (Big Island), Hawaii (Miles to Date: 19700)
Today we took a trip up to the Volcano National Park, a true geological hot spot containing two of the world’s most active volcanoes. Measured from the seafloor, broad Mauna Loa is the tallest mountain on Earth, and Kilauea continues to spew and spit, constantly reforming the landscape around it. Magma vents on the seafloor send lava shooting to the surface, erupting into molten streams that flow straight into the Pacific, forming new land as they cool.
Unfortunately the weather like most of the windward sides of the Hawaiian Islands is somewhat unpredictable, and today is no different. Low clouds have wrapped themselves around the park and intermittently deposit gentle droplets of rain upon us. We hide inside the visitor centre and watch a film about the volcanoes and the natural environment within the park. In between the showers we brave a walk out onto the crater rim of Kilauea, not that there is much to see in the mists. This is still very much an active volcano as can be seen by the gases being emitted from vents in the Kilauea crater. There are also scenic trails around the rim, but the views are not too good today, Even so we walked out to the steam vents that line the crater rim and then out to the sulphur banks. We smell the banks before we see the bright yellow mineral deposits - this is one of the few places on Kilauea where the vents give off the foul, rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulphide.
Today we took a trip up to the Volcano National Park, a true geological hot spot containing two of the world’s most active volcanoes. Measured from the seafloor, broad Mauna Loa is the tallest mountain on Earth, and Kilauea continues to spew and spit, constantly reforming the landscape around it. Magma vents on the seafloor send lava shooting to the surface, erupting into molten streams that flow straight into the Pacific, forming new land as they cool.
Unfortunately the weather like most of the windward sides of the Hawaiian Islands is somewhat unpredictable, and today is no different. Low clouds have wrapped themselves around the park and intermittently deposit gentle droplets of rain upon us. We hide inside the visitor centre and watch a film about the volcanoes and the natural environment within the park. In between the showers we brave a walk out onto the crater rim of Kilauea, not that there is much to see in the mists. This is still very much an active volcano as can be seen by the gases being emitted from vents in the Kilauea crater. There are also scenic trails around the rim, but the views are not too good today, Even so we walked out to the steam vents that line the crater rim and then out to the sulphur banks. We smell the banks before we see the bright yellow mineral deposits - this is one of the few places on Kilauea where the vents give off the foul, rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulphide.There is an active vent on Kilauea that erupted back in 1983 and has wiped out numerous houses and road on its way to the sea. Today it still spews red hot lava down into the sea, resulting in super heated water and plumes of steam high into the sky. The area where the
action is taking place is not on the National Park and is only about 15 miles from where we are staying. We learn the best time to do the viewing is at night. The National Park Service has set up car parking about ½ a mile from the lava flows, but to get from the car park you have to cross rough lava rock deposits in the dark. This does not deter people in the thousands making this trip – and of course we have to make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity. By the time we arrive the car parks are more or less full so we park on the road, which makes our walk about 2 miles each way, but only the last ½ mile is across a rough surface. At the end of the car park we can look down the road at what used to be park of the coastal highway and is now being crossed by the lava flow, the road surface now a burning mass. Further up into the hills rivers of red lava are clearly visible, flowing relentlessly seaward. Armed with torches(flashlights!!) we carefully make our way across the rocks following the dozens of other people on the trail, to the sea cliffs. The dangerous walk across the rough cliffs is more than worth it, for when we get there the sight is stunning. Several rivers of lava trail down to the cliffs edge and tumble into the sea. The bright red of the lava lights up the sky and the clouds of steam thrown up by the lava hitting the sea. We marvel at this and get very excited by the occasional sputtering of globules of lava in the air as the lava pooled on the edge of cliff. This is truly a unique site – only Jack is disappointed as he hoped to get a close up view of rivers of lava and didn’t really want to hear how dangerous this would have been.
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