Weekend Adventure! (Part One) July 7th

Well, to call this past weekend anything less than an adventure would be an understatement. On Friday morning Jake, Richard and I took off in our cool green Jeep Grand Cherokee rental car -->
to go to the volcano and see as much of the island as we could. We left with little plan but to drive around and get to the volcano, then end at the beaches. The passenger seat occupant was navigator and was incharge of looking in the book to see if there was anything interesting we should turn off for.

We left a sunny Kona a little before 10 am and headed south towards Hilo (its on the eastern side). I drove most of the trip out which was nice because it kept me awake to see the different sites as we drove past them. Leaving Kona we went through some densely vegetated areas, not quite a rainforest but very tropical and really pretty. We continued driving around (sadly missing the turn off to South Point - the southern tip of the island- and thus the Green Sand Beach, because we didn't know about that until we were way past it). Along the way to the volcano we ran across the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach.

If you've never seen a black sand beach in person, it's definately much cooler than in the pictures. The sand itself is awsome, because the grains are so large (compared to the California sand i'm used to) and its definately pitch black. It was super windy at this beach so swimming wasn't really an option (larg surf, kinda crazy waves) so we continued our journey onward.

Our next stop was the volcano itself: Kilauea. There are actually 5 volcanoes on the island, but this is the only one that is active, the rest are old, like the ones on the other Hawaiian islands (with the exception of the newest Hawaiian island I learned about: Lo'ihi. Its still 3200 feet underwater, but will be a great spot to visit in about 100,000 years). Kilauea is currently erupting, but we only could see the lava from way far away (more on that later). When we first got to the park it started raining (which I later found out is very normal for that area). We got our maps and began to trek around the Park. We went around the big crater from the original and larger eruptions and saw some cool sites. The park is laid out really nicely, you drive around the big crater and see some cool stuff (I know Matthew, my cousin, would be in heaven here, there were so many neat rocks and holes and steam vents and of course the lava). The first thing we ran across was some large Steam Vents. These are areas where there is a hole in the ground that the super hot are escapes out of creating steam in the cooler air above ground. We stood by one as the steam gushed out and its about one notch below scalding, pretty awesome. We continued along the road to the Southwestern Rift, a large canyon like crack in the earth from a lava flow, and on to some other craters before heading down the "Chain of Craters" road. This road ends where the most recent eruption had run over it basically erasing the rest of the road (and a visitor center, little village and some other things). From here we were able to hike across the lava field to where you could see the current lava pouring out into the ocean. We were told the best time to see the lava was after sunset because it really stood out against the darker sky (which is true) so we hiked in late afternoon so we could watch the sunset and stay a little to see the lava at night. This is where some of the crazy adventure begins. From what I just wrote it probably sounds like we had this all planned out and were well prepared, but it wasn't quite like that. Here's about how it went down.

( ^The lava field headed towards the current eruption into the ocean 2.5 mile hike)

We drove to the stop point then got out of car and walked down to the lava field, thinking we would take some pictures and head out (we didn't know that was where you hike to see the lava too). When we got down there, about half a mile down the road from where you park, you see a bunch of signs saying things like: 2.5 miles to current flow, be prepared for a long, hot, dry hike! make sure you have at least 3 quarts of water per person, wear good shoes, bring a flashlight, don't go to close to the edge, use caution, so on and so forth. Well, when we got down there and realized that was where the lava was we decided it would be best to hike it, watch the sunset, and head back then get to the campsite and have dinner and go to sleep, timing worked out well (or so we thought). Then being lazy college kids and realizing how we were a ways from the car, we decided to just go from where we were and not go back to the car. What did this mean? Well, I hiked the lava field in my Reef flipflops with no water, no food and no flashlight (I also had no sunscreen and those last couple hours of sunlight led to my first sunburn (small) in several years :o( oops). Oh, did I mention that there really is no trail, you just hike out across the mostly jagged lava field towards the eruption until you get to the part with rope and signs. After dark there are six small blinking beacons over that 2.5 miles to guide you back to the road. (Poor Jake also hiked in his flipflops which ended up breaking so he walked back barefoot and has some cuts to remind him of that). However, the hike was really not bad at all, I didn't ever get thirsty until the end when I also got hungry, but we got to sit and chill for awhile as the sun went down and we waited for the viewing to get better (which it definately did, it went from seeing a small red speck to the whole edge turning red).

It was amazing to sit and watch the lava crash into the sea and explode as the waves crashed into it. The hike back was also not as bad as I anticipated (remember no light). Luckily there was a full moon and the lava rocks are kinda shiny so I could see pretty well as I hiked from beacon to beacon so I wouldn't get lost. I slipped up once and landed on my hand which got a little scraped and my pinky is still sore but other than that it was kinda enjoyable (in hindsight mostly).

After that excitement it was completely dark (and around 9:30pm) when we went out to find the campground. We got there easily only to have it be pouring rain (difficult for setting up a tent and basically impossible to start a fire to cook dinner with). So we made the executive decision to drive the 30 miles into Hilo find another campground where it wasn't raining. Unfortunately there are no other campground actually in the Hilo area, and it was still raining (hard). We decided to look for a cheaper hotel and sleep there with a fast food dinner. However every hotel in Hilo (that we could find from the book) had NO VACANCY with the exception of one that wanted $137 for a smokey, small room. No thanks. So long story short we ate at Taco Bell then went looking for a deserted section of road or something that we could pull off into. We found an empty lot in some warehouse section, pulled over put the seats down part way (Jake was sleeping across the back seat) and tried to sleep. However the rain made it so we had to keep the windows up, which made the car heat up quickly, so much of the night was a fall asleep/wake up game of opening and closing the windows as the rain stopped and started and the car got hot and cooled down.

And thus ended Day One.