Day 17 - Volcanoes National Park

On our way into the National Park, we stopped to see tree molds where lava had surrounded trees and hardened. When the trees decayed/rotted away, there's a huge hole left in the shape of the tree trunk that was once there.

We entered the park and went to the Kilauea Visitor Center where we learned from a ranger that lava was flowing out of the Kilauea Caldera just last week! They said it looked like a lava lake, but the lava has now receded back into the pit. Bummer! However when we got to the caldera, we could see steam coming out of the pit because hot lava was in there!

Even though we didn't see flowing lava, it was amazing to know lava was flowing underneath us! We could smell the sulphur and see steam vents where the steam from the lava was escaping from gaps in the ground.

We hiked Kilauea Iki crater which was a 4 mile hike across the floor of the crater. Flowing lava leaves behind an unbelievable landscape as we walked across smooth and jagged hardened lava. We even saw spots where steam was rising out of cracks in the crater. No doubt this volcano was still active.

At the end of the hike was Thurston Lava Tube. After walking through a rainforest area, we came to a huge black hole which we could walk in. Inside the tube it was dark and water was dripping from the top. Lava tubes are formed when flowing lava cools on the top faster than it cools on the bottom which creates the tube. We could only go 1/4 mile inside the tube, but it continued all the way to the ocean.

We drove the 23 miles down Chain of Craters Road. If lava was flowing you could see it making a red path to the ocean. For us, we saw black paths streaks all the way down to the ocean where lava once flowed.  

After a quick dinner at Volcano Hotel in the park, we went back to see Kilauea Caldera at 7:30PM. In the dark, we could see the red glow of the volcano at the top of the pit as steam continued to billow out. Amazing!