February 17th, Hawai'i Day 4

This was the day I had planned to spend most of in Volcano National Park, located on the southeast portion of Hawaii. I left around 08:30 and I arrived at the park entrance about 2 hours later. There were many sights that I could have seen along the way but time constraints prevented me from doing so. Also, I have to leave something for the next time I make it to Hawaii.

The park itself is pretty large and contains the active volcanic sites in Hawaii. The most impressive feature is, in my opinion, the Kilauea Caldera. It is not active at the moment but has been very much so in the past. Over 100 years ago a man by the name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known to the world as Mark Twain, visited Hawaii and at the time, there was a large pool of lava in the Kilauea crater. Beside the crater and in it are active steam vents which show that the water underneath the ground is being heated. Also, there are active sulfur vents recognizable by the yellow rocks around them. There were also numerous other calderas down the road and rifts from the cracking of the Earth.

At the end of the road, quite literally, there is a now cooled lava flow from the 1980s and 1990s. The lava flowed over the road which existed and it now lies buried under innumberable tonnes of rock. Also inside the park, there is a lava tube which you can walk through.

At about 16:00 I left the park and continued to drive east to Hilo, the largest city on the island. I had made reservations there at the Hilo Bay Hostel, a nice place that had once been a hotel. Hilo retained the 1920s and 1930s architecture of its downtown which made walking through it quite an experience.

Photos are now available at: http://volcanonationalpark.blogspot.com/