Our Last Days in Kona

Hello, All!
Yesterday, we spent the entire day on the volcano park tour. We left Kona at 9am, headed up to Mauna Loa for lunch at 6,600 ft. After a quick break, we headed to the Volcano national Park on Kilauea. Our first stop was at the Jaggar Museum where we were able to see the seismographs on all of the volcanoes, learn about the Polynesian folklore of the volcanoes, and check out the active crater. after the museum, we took a 1 mile hike around the sulfur banks trail. We were able to see them steam vents and the sulfur banks. On Kilauea it rains on and off all day long. Because the lava rock is so porous, the rain water quickly seeps through the lava rock. The rain water makes it about 1/4 mile beneath the surface before it gets so hot that it becomes steam and rises back to the surface.

After the steam vents we headed to the sulfur banks. Sulfur is in slution down by the magma. Some of the rain water will make it down to the magma. The sulfur hitches a ride on the water droplets in the steam and makes it way back to the surface. It is deposited on the rocks outside the vents.

We got back in the van and headed to a crater called the Devil's Throat. The crater was about 150-200 feet deep, and expanding everyday. Our guide said that tour for about a few years and he has noticed trees that used to be around the edge of the crater that have since fallen in. After Devil's Throat we headed further down the road to a on lava flow (1960s-early 1970s). Here, we saw some lava trees. Lava trees form when the molten lava is flowing through a forest and it starts to dry when it hits a tree that has a lot of water in it. The lava builds up around the tree, eventually burning it up, but the dried lava remains. It actually still has a hole that the tree was once in.

After leaving Devil's Throat we started to head down the mountain towards the coast.  On the way down the mountain we pulled off the road to look at some petroglyphs.  The petroglyphs we saw were originally where family of a new born baby would bring the umbilical cord.  The umbilical cord was left over night.  In the morning if the umbilical cord had remained it signified a long and healthy life for the baby.  If it had disappeared it was bad luck for the baby.

After the petroglyphs we continued down the  mountain to the coast.  When we reached the coast we ate dinner.  The views of the cliffs were amazing!

 
 After dinner we turned around and went back up to the volcano.  On the way to up the mountain we stopped at the Thurston Lava Tubes.  Here lava once flowed through at speeds up to 30 mph!  We ended the night by making our way back up to the Jagger museum.  At the museum you are able to look into the Halemaumau crater.  This crater is home to one of the lava pools.  Although to pool is not visible from the museum because of the crater walls.  However, at night the heat from the lava creates such extreme heat that the crater begins to glow.  This was the highlight of our volcano park tour.  The glow is amazing!  What a view!

That concluded our day at Volcano National Park.

The next day we woke up and were lucky enough to have the Ravens game on the local CBS.  We lounged around and watched the first half and then went to breakfast.  After breakfast we packed our bags to start our trip to one of two green beaches in the world.  The drive was about an hour and 40 minutes to the start of the hike.  Along the way we saw all kinds plants and lava flows.  We even saw a zebra.  Who knew zebra's were in Hawaii!


After arriving at the entrance to the trail to the green beach we started our 2.5 mile hike to the beach.  The hike is over barren land and old lava flows.  There are trails that people in Jeeps and 4x4s use to get to the beach.  We decided to tough it out and hike the entire way.  It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to make the hike, but we took our time and took lots of pictures.  To the right is a picture of the land we were hiking through.


Once we reach our destination we were greeted by the green sand beach from above.  It was an amazing view.  See for yourself below!

We hiked around the edge of the crater and walked down the trail to the beach.  The sand is more of an olive color green.  We spent about an hour at the beach hanging out in the water.  The cliffs of the green beach are amazing.  It looks like someone just picked up a chunk of the land and removed it.  Really amazing views.  The beach was not very crowded.  A few tourists, but mostly local hanging out in the water boogie boarding.


Below is a picture of the cliff from the beach:

After spending time on green beach we walked the 2.5 miles back (this time in about 45 minutes).  We left the green beach and went immediately to South Point.  South Point is about 2 miles from the entrance to green beach.  At south point we walked to the southern most point in the United States.  We walked out and took a picture.  At the moment the picture was taken we were the two most southern people in the United States.  Pretty cool right...

After South Point we drove back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.  We went to dinner at Kona Brewing Company where we sampled some local beers and had some really good food.  Tomorrow we are back to O'ahu.  Not a lot planned on O'ahu, just looking to relax and enjoy our last week of vacation.

Aloha!  Until tomorrow...