We started driving from Kona towards the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. While we were driving what struck us was the variety in tropical plants and flowers. The rainforests here were amazing!! We were so enthusiastic; we bought a book about tropical plants and flowers, and started identifying them as we passed them.
Rainforest
Tropical Plant – Anthurium
Our next stop was a black sand beach. Big Island is known for its black sand. Black igneous rock from the lava flow gets disintegrated into sand particles and forms these beaches. This beach was supposed to be a rest area for turtles. We went, spread our mat, and sat down on the beach. Immediately we saw turtles popping their heads out of the water. There were a few green turtles that came and slept on the beach. It was wonderful.
Turtle
We reached the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at 5:30 PM and started driving on the Chain of Craters road. On the way we saw old craters, fuming vents – proofs of past and current volcanic activity.
Chain of Craters View
The Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has been erupting since 1983. It is not your typical volcano where there is a tall mountain and lava flows out through a crater on the top. Lava from the volcano travels several kilometers in lava tubes under the ground and pours into the ocean. We reached the volcano view point and immediately realized that we should have come an hour early. Cars were parked at least a mile away from the rangers office. The radio told us that lava was visible after a 2 mile walk from the office. After we reached the rangers office, we noticed that there was no road anymore. Lava from a few months back had closed a vast stretch of the road. The trail was marked, but most of the hike was boulder hopping!!
Lava on the Road
We keep walking on huge lava fields with the ocean on the right. We walked 1 mile when the trail ended. The ocean breeze kept us cool and we kept walking beyond the trail as were a few hundred people. After a while, we noticed that the ground below our feet became a little warm. The park ranger told us that we were walking on active Lava Tubes! There was a mountain there that was feeding this lava and it was transporting it through this lava tube into the ocean. We finally reached a place where hundreds of people were sitting on the rocks and watching something like they were in an amphitheater. This was it!!
Lava flowing into the Ocean
After a 3-mile hike, we finally saw hot red lava flowing into the ocean in 3-4 channels. It was awesome. We were speechless. It was one of those incredible sights that you only get to see on the National Geographic Channel, except this was happening live in front of us. The sun had set and we saw the bright red lava and the red glowing smoke it was creating.
Lava flowing into crashing waves
We spent over an hour there and turned back only when it started drizzling. Night had set it, but luckily for us it was a full moon day. Even otherwise we had come equipped with flashlights. The rest of the hike would have been lackluster except that in the mountains, another vent became active and lava started flowing out. What started as specks of light became a flow of at least mile lava flow by the time we got done. It was an amazing sight that would remain etched in our memories forever.