Our first stop on the big island was Mauna Kea. We couldn't
go all the way up, but we stopped at the visitor center.
The girls think it's cold here!

Big Island AdventuresWe completed our first island-hopping vacation! We took a short flight to the island of Hawaii, and got to experience being out of sight of the ocean for the first time in a year. There are actually wide open spaces on that island! For our first five days we stayed in a cabin at Volcanoes National Park, and did our outdoor exploring from there. So many good hikes and cool things to see--lots of lava formations and craters, steam vents and sulfur springs, black and green sand beaches, neat plants and animals. . . . We even experienced a 5.5 earthquake!

From the park we also did a day trip into Hilo, where we saw Rainbow Falls, an amazing banyan tree, and Kaumana Caves (a lava tube). While in town, we also visited an art exhibit by the local wood-turning club (there were some gorgeous and impressive pieces on display) and a nature photographer's gallery, where we got to hear his wife's tales of how he got some of those photos (he melted a pair of tennis shoes standing on not-quite-cool-enough lava!) and we purchased one of his photos of an active lava flow.

Photo op in Kailua-Kona!

For our last two nights we drove to the other side of the island to stay in the resort town of Kailua-Kona, where we visited more local art galleries, did some souvenir shopping, toured a Hawaiian palace, and visited the City of Refuge (what's left of a royal residence location and a sanctuary city that was used until the early 1800s).

Here are some of the highlights in photos!

This volcano is still steaming! (about 1/2 mile from our cabin)

This bleak landscape is a good portion of the Mauna Ulu Trail
This 3-mile hike through a lava flow from the 70s led to the
summit of a cinder cone volcano.

Fortunately, there were ahu (piles of rocks) for us to follow!

The lava left a nice little chair!
Also note Monkey's bloody knee. For the record, falling on lava
is like falling on broken glass. She was a trooper and finished
the hike after a short rest. 

The girls thought this lava bridge was fascinating.

This part of the lava flow formed a perfect road for the trail to follow.

These nene (endangered Hawaiian geese) were hanging out at the trailhead.
There are only a few hundred left, so it was excited to see two up close!

This shot is from the Pu'u Loa Trail, which leads to an area full
of tons of petroglyphs like the ones picutred below. Their exact
 age and meaning is unknown.

We drove as far as we could inside the park,
and found an overlook of this sea arch.

There were lots of crater overlooks inside the park.
This one was fantastic for making echoes!

Here the girls are at the edge of the Kilauea Caldera. It's still steaming
and much of the park past this point is closed due to the poisonous gas
still being released.

This is why you can't drive on Crater Rim Drive anymore!
We walked the section open to hikers, but even we weren't allowed past this point.

One last shot from the park--the Sulfur Banks!

The black sand beach was so cool! It's not a good swimming beach,
but the girls played in the sand and tidal pools.

 

See those sea turtles behind Monkey and Lion?!
They like to hang out here because the sand is so warm.

Bug thinks it looks like caviar!

We followed a steep set of stairs into Kaumana Caves lava tube.

This might have been the girls favorite part of the trip!
Past the stairs there are no lights, no handrails--just you and
your headlamp and 20 miles of lava tube. We explored about
a quarter mile in before heading back. This involved crawling through
some section--even for the girls!

Photo op at Rainbow Falls!

If you walk up past the falls, you get to see this amazing banyan
tree. Yes, that's all one plant, including the line of trees you
see on the far side. The banyan's branches stretch out and send
down new trunks in a circle around it.

Photo op at South Point! (the southernmost point in the U.S.)

We did a 6-mile round-trip hike to see Green Sand Beach.
While the trail does follow the coastline, most of it is so eroded that
you're hiking through little canyons like this.

There it is!

We made it! We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach before heading back.

Posing by the ki'i (Hawaiian gods) outside the City of Refuge.

Learning how to play konane (a traditional Hawaiian strategy game)

Look! I was on this trip too!