So, we were up early this morning.\u00a0 After some discussion, a quick breakfast and morning coffee, we made a plan to return to the Volcano NP and hike across the Kilauea Iki crater.<\/p>\n
We left the guest house at 7 AM for the 45 minute drive to Volcano NP.\u00a0 Got there a little before 8 and stopped briefly at the visitor center to see if we could get a map.\u00a0 No luck as they open at 9AM.\u00a0 We did get another copy of the brief description map of the areas in the park, but no details about the Kilauea Iki trail.<\/p>\n
No matter.\u00a0 We drove to the parking lot for the hike and were on the trail about 8:45 AM after a false start because G had left his sunglasses in the car and had to make a 0.3 mi return trip to get’em!\u00a0 As it turned out, didn’t need them after all.\u00a0 It had rained earlier and was cloudy the entire time we were hiking.\u00a0 Of course, that made for better hiking than full blazing sun, but made for lousy pictures. Took a lot anyway and hoping that post-processing can make something of gray sky, gray lava and little green on the sides!<\/p>\n
This was a very interesting hike.\u00a0 We took the trail in reverse and had a nice walk down the 400 feet through the rain forest into the crater floor.\u00a0 Once there, the trail was maked by Ahu (stacked rocks).\u00a0 We saw steam vents up close, the smallest plants growing in the harsh conditions of the lava and plenty of broken lava in many shapes and forms.\u00a0 Photographed quite a few and maybe some will turn into photos….<\/p>\n
The rain forest part of the trail both going down and coming back up the 400 feet in elevation at the end were muddy in spots.\u00a0 We were able to work around most of the puddles with a little ingenuity.\u00a0 The trek down through the rain forest was more interesting because there seemed to be more gradual descent with changing vegetation along the way.<\/p>\n
The walking on the crater floor was really very easy.\u00a0 After crossing the crater, the trail back up was across some rougher terrain and it was more difficult walking and climbing.<\/p>\n
After returning to the top, we had bananas and Kashi bars for a snack.\u00a0 Then began our drive back to the guest house.\u00a0 As we got back into Hilo, Joyce remembered that we still needed to find a Hawaiian shirt for Gary.\u00a0 We looked for the store recommended in the guidebook our hosts have available, but the Hilo Hotties stores were out of business.\u00a0 We’ll have to check with our hosts for more information on this topic.<\/p>\n
We drove by the Hilo lighthouse and stopped to take it’s photo again this time with blue sky in the background.\u00a0 Then, finally we decided to have a Hawaiian shave ice treat at the little restaurant just down the road from our guest house.\u00a0 Gary had mango and banana while Joyce had guava and passion fruit.\u00a0 Very tasty!\u00a0 We looked for a geocache at this place, but were unable to search very much due to the number of people present.\u00a0 So far, no caches today.\u00a0 We’ll be out again to find at least one!<\/p>\n
finally back at our house around 2:30 PM.\u00a0 We need showers, aspirin and a bit more to eat.\u00a0 Probably popcorn and whatever….<\/p>\n
We’re keeping an eye out for blue sky over the Akaka waterfall hoping to improve upon the photos take when it was cloudy the other day.\u00a0 No luck so far!<\/p>\n
Later, we plan on dinner out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, we were up early this morning.\u00a0 After some discussion, a quick breakfast and morning coffee, we made a plan to return to the Volcano NP and hike across the Kilauea Iki crater. We left the guest house at 7 AM for the 45 minute drive to Volcano NP.\u00a0 Got there a little before 8 … Continue reading Wednesday Aug 19–Last Full Day on the Big Island<\/span>