Thursday, February 20, 2020
The average temperature here in February is 20C, low 10C. A nice transition to home?
Started the day by feeding Stephen's fish:
Today we just set off on our own through Volcano National Park. There are over 2 million visitors to the park every year. Maybe they all want to see a volcano erupt like we do?
Fast facts about Volcano National Park:
- The park was established in 1916.
- It is 323,431 acres large
- Elevation varies from 0 to 13,667 feet.
- It has 2 active volcanoes
- It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
- The park has 7 ecological zones.
- 59 endangered species live here.
- The park has over 1000 species of plants, 90% of them only exist here.
- The park has 106 km of paved roads and 250 km of marked trails.
As soon as we got into the park, we headed straight for The Kilauea'iki Trail, which can get quite busy. This was a 6.5 km loop trail that started by skirting the rim of the crater, then dipped down into the crater itself, and back up the other end.
It was very cool to walk across the floor of an actual volcanic crater. The crater floor was formed only 50 years ago. The crater is 1.6 km long, almost a km across, and the floor of the crater is 122 meters below the rim.
Next we went to see the steam vents and the steaming bluff. The steam is caused by ground water seeping down onto the hot volcanic rocks.
Across the road was the Sulphur Banks Trail. Here the volcanic gases and steam escape from the ground and leave colourful mineral deposits.
We drove up Mauna Loa Rd for a bit. Here are some Lava Tree Molds. These were formed when lava surrounded the trees. The trunks were waterlogged so did not burn right away, and the lava hardened around the trees. However, the lava was too hot for the trees, and they eventually all combusted and burnt away, leaving hardened lava holes deep into the earth.
Anton fed a wild chicken:
The next hike we did was called Kipukapuaulu which was a 2 km loop through a forested area, very pretty. But we renamed it Falling Tree Trail because we couldn't even count how many trees had fallen and had to be moved away from the path.
The road up Mauna Loa was very pretty.
Our next trail was just outside the park, the Ka'u Desert Trail, 2.5 km. We loved this trail because we were walking through fields and fields of lava rocks and boulders.
Part way into this trail, you can see footprints where people walked through volcanic ash from the 1790 Kilauea eruption. They found 1773 footprints here:
Back into the park, we wanted to see how far we could get on Crater Rim Drive. You used to be able to drive all the way around Kilauea, 18 km. Now since the 2018 eruption, only about a third is open. We could only go as far as Devastation Trail. In 1959 Kilauea'iki erupted and sent a fountain of lava 580 meters into the sky, incinerating the forest that was here.
Well, we had done enough hiking for the day, so we had dinner at Volcano House. It was disappointing because we thought it was going to be a really nice restaurant. Instead, Anton got pizza and Frankie had to order 3 sides just to get a meal. And they actually brought it as 3 sides ha ha. And then as we were leaving, we saw that the nicer restaurant was in a different area. And we were glad we didn't eat there when we saw the menu and prices!
Consolation: the cheaper restaurant had wonderful views of the Kilauea Crater!
We set a new record today: almost 26,000 steps!!!
It was very cool to walk across the floor of an actual volcanic crater. The crater floor was formed only 50 years ago. The crater is 1.6 km long, almost a km across, and the floor of the crater is 122 meters below the rim.
Next we went to see the steam vents and the steaming bluff. The steam is caused by ground water seeping down onto the hot volcanic rocks.
Across the road was the Sulphur Banks Trail. Here the volcanic gases and steam escape from the ground and leave colourful mineral deposits.
We drove up Mauna Loa Rd for a bit. Here are some Lava Tree Molds. These were formed when lava surrounded the trees. The trunks were waterlogged so did not burn right away, and the lava hardened around the trees. However, the lava was too hot for the trees, and they eventually all combusted and burnt away, leaving hardened lava holes deep into the earth.
Anton fed a wild chicken:
The next hike we did was called Kipukapuaulu which was a 2 km loop through a forested area, very pretty. But we renamed it Falling Tree Trail because we couldn't even count how many trees had fallen and had to be moved away from the path.
The road up Mauna Loa was very pretty.
Our next trail was just outside the park, the Ka'u Desert Trail, 2.5 km. We loved this trail because we were walking through fields and fields of lava rocks and boulders.
Part way into this trail, you can see footprints where people walked through volcanic ash from the 1790 Kilauea eruption. They found 1773 footprints here:
Back into the park, we wanted to see how far we could get on Crater Rim Drive. You used to be able to drive all the way around Kilauea, 18 km. Now since the 2018 eruption, only about a third is open. We could only go as far as Devastation Trail. In 1959 Kilauea'iki erupted and sent a fountain of lava 580 meters into the sky, incinerating the forest that was here.
Well, we had done enough hiking for the day, so we had dinner at Volcano House. It was disappointing because we thought it was going to be a really nice restaurant. Instead, Anton got pizza and Frankie had to order 3 sides just to get a meal. And they actually brought it as 3 sides ha ha. And then as we were leaving, we saw that the nicer restaurant was in a different area. And we were glad we didn't eat there when we saw the menu and prices!
Consolation: the cheaper restaurant had wonderful views of the Kilauea Crater!
We set a new record today: almost 26,000 steps!!!
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