Weekend Adventure! (Part Two) July 8th

We woke up and headed to a gas station to change and fill the tank. From there the main goal was to get to the waterfalls in the book because that seemed like a promising place to swim in the freshwater river and would act as a shower (cause we were stinky from the long night in the car). We drove around and missed the turn (which was basically the story of this trip too because we discovered that if they even put a sign for the turn off to many of the places we went it is somewhere in the vicinity of 5-20 ft in front of the the turn itsself and usually small and worn off). After a short drive we made it to Rainbow Falls, named thus because in the morning with the sun behind you this large waterfall usually gets rainbows near the bottom. However we had no such luck cause it was raining. (In case you were wondering we leared that the average rainfall in Hilo is way over 100 inches per year, it is the wettest city in the USA and they claim drought if they get less than 70 inches of rain in a year and start conserving water...ha). So this rain was apparently nothing out of the ordinary.

Despite the rain the waterfall was extremely beautiful and surrounded by rainforest which we got to hike through a bit. We went up a trail through a part of the forest and down to the river. Unfortunately there was no access to the pool at the waterfall and the river before it was way to rough for swimming. So we continued down the road.

The next stop was a place called Boiling Pots which was a series of pools linked by small waterfalls that often would look very rough (like they were boiling) as the water raced from pool to pool to pool. That day though the flow was moderate (or so I assume) and the pools were more serene looking.

Upriver is another large waterfall, Pe'epe'e Falls. There was a trail that led down to the river just above the Boiling Pots where you could see the falls several pools upriver. Just above the Boiling Pots was this nice large pool that looked fairly calm and quite inviting. So despite the "recommendation" of the sign at the trailhead, we went swimming. And boy did it feel wonderful. It was very cold and the water was a little murky, due to the fact that the river is mostly formed from rainwater and is just downstream of a large waterfall. The rocks are also a little rough, but I had my flipper booties on so that was no problem at all. There were two pools to swim through before reaching the large water fall, so we swam through them. My underwater camera housing came in handy here as I could take it with me and get some good shots of Pe'epe'e Falls close up. There was a cliff on one side that Jake managed to climb up and jump off of (a little too high for my tastes and the current in the waterfall pool was really strong). We hung out and swam around for a bit before heading back up the trail and to the car.

From there we drove back out of Hilo and towards Puna which has some really beautiful rainforests and naturally heated freshwater pools, as well as cool tidepools, some small, rocky beaches and as we discovered really fun 4WD roads.

There is a light house down a dirt road that sits at the most eastern edge of the island so we drove down there and breathed what is (according to our guide book) thought of as the purest air around the globe because it comes from across the landless Pacific. Its actually used as a standard by many governments to test against the quality of air in different places. From there we took a 4WD and really bumpy lava road down and around the coast, seeing some really amazing scenery and cool explosions of water as the waves crashed against the steep, rocky coast. We drove back around and down the road to try and find Lava Swimming Pool, a large heated freshwater pool. Unfortunately all we found was a really pretty road that went down through a rainforest and eventually turned into a really pretty and kinda crazy 4WD only road that of course we drove down (until we almost got stuck, then almost went into a ditch).

After our adventures in Puna we drove back into Hilo and out the other side to head towards the first beach park with camping (according to the book) so that we would have a situation like the night before. In doing this we discovered that it is no lie that it likes to rain on the northern side of the island and it was pouring constantly up to the park we had picked out. Luckily we decided that since we had enough daylight we should just drive around the the north-west side (where the good beaches are) and camp at one of those from the book. So we did and it was a good thing too because it rained the whole way until we were around the bend and on the more western side.

Of course it would have been too easy had it all worked out so here's the quick breakdown of what happened. We missed the turn to stay on the right highway and ended up going several miles out of our way on a highway that bypassed all the beaches and shot straight back into Kona, but we managed to discover that before it was too late and were able to cut back to where we needed to be and only have to backtrack a little bit. We got to the park from the book, Hapuna Beach Park, only to discover there was in fact no tent camping allowed, it was camping through a-frame cabins you had to reserve ahead of time. So we moved back up to a different beach park, Spencer Beach. This one however had a security guard at it saying, "sorry, you can't camp here because the park has been rented out by two family reunions." Okay, where's the next place we can camp? "You could try Mahukona 12 miles north of here." So we did and as we drove that way we drove right back into rain. We turned around and debated what to do.

In the end and with no way of barbequing we stopped at the only restaraunt around, named Harbor Grill, so you think hamburger right? Turns out its a super expensive place and dinner is either fish, steak, etc, no hamburger. However I had steamed Mahimahi with rice and it was the second best Mahimahi I've ever had. (the first was at an oceanside restaraunt in Maui last time we were there...when the Smith boys had to eat somewhere else cause that place was too nice). So about 40$ later (just my meal and a good glass of wine cause it was needed) we headed back towards Hapuna then off on a little dirt road where we proceeded to pull off into a deserty/grassy area for the night. Conditions were 100% better than in Hilo and Jake slept in the tent on the side of the road while Richard slept in the drivers seat of the car, and I made a makeshift bed in the back by moving all our stuff to one side and putting the seat down. It was actually pretty comfortable in the end and I fell asleep listening to Jimmy Buffet and the howling wind. (Oh yeah and my camera battery was giving me the low battery sign so I couldn't snap a shot of this place because I wanted to save what was left to get a shot at the beach in the morning).

And thus ended Day Two.