Volcanoes National Park Day 2

Friday, February 21, 2020

For today, we went back to Volcanoes National Park and decided to drive along the Chain of Craters Road (31 km).  The Chain of Craters Road is full of overlooks and pullouts.  Lots of lava and craters.

The Lua Manu Crater (Bird Crater) filled with 50 feet of lava in 1974 with the eruption of a different volcano, and then the lava drained again. You can still see the “high lava mark”.

Hilina Pali (Windy Cliff) Rd is a 14.5 km drive that takes you to an overlook. That seemed to be a long ways to go for just an overlook, but along the way there is a 16 km long fault line. It is a "reversed or backward fault", formed by the downward movement of sections of mountainside. That's cool.

Pauahi (Destroyed by Fire) Crater measures 2000 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 500 feet deep.

Before the 1969 eruption of Mauna Ulu, this area was a dense forest.

We hiked for miles trying to find Mauna Ulu (Growing Mountain) Crater.  We eventually climbed a ridge hoping to find it.  Later, from the viewpoint at Pu'uhululu, we realized that the ridge actually was the crater. 

We looked for Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu (The long Continuous Growing Mountain) but could not find it.  This is where the lava flow continually crossed and recrossed the Chain of Craters Road. 

imagecredit:https://www.hawaii-guide.com/big-island/sights/chain_of_craters_road

Kealakomo (The Entrance Path) is an overlook. All you can see is lava fields, but there used to be a village here (until it got covered).

Pu‘u Loa (Long Hill, which really means Hill of Long Life) is the largest petroglyph field in Hawaii. It is dated between 1200 - 1450 A.D. There are more than 23,000 images. A lot of the images are "pukas", a ring of concentric circles with a depression in the center where they placed part of a baby's umbilical cord to ensure it would have a long life.  You can see some of the petroglyphs behind us:

We went as far as Chain of Craters Road could go.  The road used to go farther until it was buried in 1969 during the Mauna Ulu eruption.

In 2014, crews used heavy machinery to break and crush the lava that was blocking the road so that they could create an emergency access road.  This part of the road is along the Pacific Ocean:

On the way back, we noticed a lot of cars parked at the Thurston Lava Tube, which has been closed for 2 years since the big 2018 eruption.  We stopped and asked a ranger, and he said it re-opened just today!  Psyched!  How lucky are we!

The Thurston Lava Tube is a 500 year old cave, and was formed when a river of lava gradually built solid walls and a ceiling.  This lava tube is about 200 meters long.

Hawaiian movie of the night: Soul Surfer.  Very inspiring movie.