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Volcano Visit Part Two

Yesterday we went back to finish the driving tour of the volcano national park. The tour app was very thorough, and I feel like we saw it all.

The part of the park we hadn’t seen yet was a drive on a road called Chain of Craters Road. As the name suggests, there were lots of craters there, many of which were very large.

Instead of one large hike, we went on several small ones, and saw many interesting lava formations.

The park is a mix of forest and lava-field, because many of the eruptions are only around fifty years old. Parts of the mature forest was swallowed by molten rock, and now rock and tree stand side-by-side.

It was windy and even a little chilly on many of the trails. The sky went back-and-forth from sunny to overcast very quickly. The clouds moved fast.

Toward the end of the road, we got a view of the ocean, and of the southernmost tip of Hawaii, which is also the southernmost tip of the United States. It’s on the distant horizon in the picture below:

There was also a trail to see some petroglyphs that ancient Hawaiians left behind. I’ve always heard about petroglyphs, but never seen them. I was glad we hiked the trail. In the picture below, the dots in the rocks are where parents would put the umbilical cords of their kids. If they were gone when they came back, it was supposed to mean the kid would have a long life.

We got back to the hotel room just before sunset:

Dinner was at a diner in Hilo. It’s was delicious comfort food. Mmm….

Today we fly back at 1pm. We’re hoping to see sone sights before heading to the airport and the tiny-plane flight back to Maui.

1 Comment

  1. Lauren

    Soooo….. did you find any current umbilical cords? (I kid.)

    Good grief! You could spend months there and still not see it all! How odd seeing those tiny plants growing around that freaky hole. So much beauty and so much weird – it’s just excellent. 😀

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