Volcano Park

Tuesday we drove to the National Park, viewed the park video and got pointers from the rangers about areas of interest.  Another ranger made an announcement that the lava lake at the crater by the Jagger Museum viewing area was active, mentioning it might continue to be visible, or not, so going sooner rather than later was advised . We joined the parade on the Crater Rim Drive and even found a parking spot.  It was impressive to watch the lava bubble and spurt in the lake.  We stopped by the steam vents on the drive back.

Active Volcano from the viewing area

Telephoto of the lava lake bubbling in the crater

Once again our gray hair had the ranger suggesting one of the shorter hikes, but we figured the 4 mile Kilauea Iki loop, one of the more popular hikes in the park, would be more to our liking.  While the trail descends 400 feet, much of the rim portion is in the rain forest and shaded making for pleasant hiking. The part across the crater looked like scenes from the moon - barren but for the bits of vegetation gradually taking root.  We'd done the hike in the right direction - with the trade wind providing a welcome breeze as we walked into it across the crater.  Once across, a gentler trail took us back through the rain forest back up tp the rim.

View of trail across the crater from the upper rim trail

Hapu u pulu Plant

Descending down into the crater note the people on the trail ahead of us

On the crater floor - it's not as smooth as it looked from the rim

Looking back once across the crater

While the forest canopy was filled with bird song, it was so dense we couldn't see the birds for the leaves.  It's amazing that 2 so different ecosystems, rain forest and moonscape, can exist in such close proximity.  Once back on the rim, we toured the Thurston Lava Tube before walking the last  half mile to the car.  The 500 year old lava tube was interesting - a somewhat short, lighted tunnel - a shorter version than the longer unlit tube that requires reservations for the few folks lucky enough to score one.

Short Lava Tube

We hiked the Devastation Trail, a short trail that skirts between the ash and rain forest behind the S side of the Kilauea Caldera.  Unfortunately, part of the trail was closed due to nesting birds. We did spot a pair of Kalij Pheasants on the way back to the car.

Devastation Trail through an ash field

 Kalij pheasant 

Realizing we didn't have to do the whole park in a day, we decided to save several other areas on the Chain of Craters Road, running from the park to the ocean for another day, possibly when we move our base to the other side of the island on Thursday.

Puna Region

Monday morning I twisted Leonard's arm and we went for a long walk in town to check out Wailoa River Park with plans to pick a few items at the bakery and farmer's market on the way home.  Wailoa River Park was a lovely spot with a statue of King Kamehameha and a series of interesting 'roller coaster' bridges over the river.  By  the time we'd walked through the park, we were almost to Coconut Island, another place on my list to see, so we included that in our walk too.  Coconut Island is a small island connected to the mainland by a foot bridge.  It's a park, and popular with locals and visitors to the big nearby resorts as a swimming area, protected by the harbor breakwater. On the way home, we found a fish market where we picked up enough fresh fish of a couple of dinners.

King Kamehameha

Foot Bridges over the River

Japanese white eye

Panorama looking across Hilo Harbor from Coconut Island (Click here and zoom to full vertical screen)

After lunch, we drove to Puna, a region SE of town that had a number of places that looked interesting.  We made a quick stop at the Mouna Loa macadamia nut grove, a somewhat of a disappointment - a big shop selling their products at tourist prices and a tour that consisted of looking through less than clean windows to watch the nuts being processed.  Much like maple syrup, it takes a lot of unshelled nuts to yield a small finished product.

We drove through Pahoa Town, a small hippie/western town that was spared when the flow stopped just short of town.  A new road bypasses the town, leaving it feeling like its stuck back in the 1960's.  A few miles down the road, we took a walk at the Lava Tree State Park , a loop through an area where lava had formed molds around trees, leaving odd shaped hulks where the tree had burned inside the mold.  Seeing a light house on the map, we went to take a look.  While the light house, a metal Erector set affair, was a disappointment, the ride to the coast wasn't.  The road cut through the lava field with blocks and chunks of lava strewn about higher than our jeep.  A very eerie sensation, with only a few bit of foliage beginning to dot the expanse. 

Hollow Lava tube formed around a tree

The "lighthouse" - note the height of the lava flow behind that we drove through

Our drive took us to a number of beaches and parks along the coast,  With the lava not yet worn down to black sand, the term beach has a different meaning, consisting of slab of rocks.  Thanks to all the geothermal activity, several of the swimming areas have warm (90 F) water,  and one is tucked behind some protective rocks, making for a placid place to loll about in bathwater.  People were snorkeling, but we hadn't brought our snorkels or towels.  The other problem with swimming at a number of the beaches are the constant warnings NOT to leave anything of value either in the car or on the rocks thanks to a number of locals who make a habit of breaking car windows or snatching unprotected items left on shore.  This is attested to by the smattering of glass found on the ground in number of the more remote parking areas.

A naturally heated swimming area on the ocean

Highway 137 is closed where the 1990 lava flow over ran the road.  We continued down to the end of the road, finding a small community of hardy folks trying to make a living selling crafts and food and drink to the tourists.  We hiked out a rough trial to the ocean and could see the steam rising where the flow is emptying into the sea, a few miles away.  Walking on the uneven (and unforgiving) lava rocks is difficult at best, so we decided it was too far to hike.  Leaving, we found that the road we had started on, Highway 130, continued a couple of miles closer to the lava flow.

Telephoto of the lava flow down the mountain

We were stopped shy of the viewing area by folks parking cars and offering the options of walking (around 4.5M 1 way), renting bikes, or taking a private shuttle.  The shuttle guy (he owned property covered by the flow which he said gave him the right to operate a shuttle at least that far) took one look at our gray hair and assumed we'd never walk that far, so he was pushing his shuttle.  We'd already walked that far in the morning and since we did have sneakers with us, could have done it.  But since it was 5:30, it would be good dark by the time we'd get there.  The plus side to having arrived late the day would be actually seeing the flow glowing rather than just the steam as it hit the sea.  We bit the bullet and took the shuttle - expensive, but a lot easier than tackling loose gravel and head winds on single speed bikes.  The price included 2 bottle of water and flash lights.The shuttle took us about half way (that hadn't been clearly spelled out), leaving us to hike the rest of the way.

Walking on the road (open to residents and emergency vehicles) was easy, and we joined the hordes of folks walking and biking in both direction.  The last bit, along a rope strung by park rangers for safety reasons was a challenge in the dark over the very uneven (and sharp) terrain.  Shelves of lava can and do break off with little warning - several people were killed when a large shelf broke not long ago, so we were content to stay behind the rope.

Lava flowing into the ocean at night

We were rewarded with some great views of the lava pouring into the waves below. We had the option to walk inland - the ranger patrolling the road indicated it was about 2 miles 1 way - to see the actual ground flow, but it was after 9, we were tired, we'd not had dinner and we still had about 2 miles to the shuttle pickup spot. Another plus of our night time walk was the beautiful clear, dark, star filled sky.  We got home after 10:30, tired and hungry, and glad we'd sprung for the shuttle.

Mauna Kea

Sunday we walked down to the marathon route but only saw 1 racer run past. Closing roads over a marathon course on the island is more difficult than at home given few alternative choices. This problem was solved by 'coning' a track along the shoulder of the main road.

With another beautiful, sunny day, we took advantage of the clear skies to check out Mauna Kea and the observatories.  Unfortunately, being a Sunday, there wold be no observatory tours (which require reservations).  Checking on the internet, there were no openings available in March.  Guess we needed to plan further ahead!

Our trip got off to a less than start - Leonard apparently had not put his finger on the correct spot on Google maps for our route, and after driving a few miles out of our way we realized we were headed to the wrong peak!  That mistake corrected, we were on our way.

Leonard had read the Saddle Road over to Kona had been recently resurfaced and was one of the smoothest on the island.  It was, except for the 6 miles that were in the process of being 'straightened', giving us a tooth chattering  ride.

We reached the visitor information center a few minutes before noon, when it opened, so we took advantage of the picnic tables to eat lunch before catching the information video covering the various observatories and the significance of the mountain means to the native Hawaiians, one of the most sacred places.  We received the rangers blessing to drive the 8 miles to the observatories having a 4 wheel drive vehicle to handle the 25 grade pitch of the road and the advice to stay in low gear both ways.  We had neither the time or the stamina to do the 10 hour round trip hike from 9,000 - 14,000 feet,  After doing a short nature trail to see some of the plants that grew abundantly before cattle and goats were introduced, we started up the mountain.

Flowers blooming in the lava field, one of the first plants to establish after a flow

Silver Spikes - once common on the volcanoes, and prime food for cattle and sheep, only a few remain behind a protective fence 

The pavement ended almost immediately, and if we thought the 6 miles on Saddle Road had been rough, this was worse since tires seem to hit the same dips in the road, making for some extreme washboard conditions.  We didn't see how anyone could drive the 25 mph speed limit - we were doing less than half that much of the way!  About half way up, we met a bicycle headed down, with the hard work behind him.   The views from the top were worth the effort.

Some of the Observatories on Mauna Kea  (Click Here and zoom to full vertical screen)

The trail to the peak  and Mauna Loa in the far distance  (Click Here and zoom to full vertical screen)

Although we'd brought along gear to hike the to the highest point (another 200 ft in elevation and 0.8 miles), we opted out.  It's a sacred area to the natives, and a sign was posted requesting folks to respect their beliefs and abstain from hiking trail.  Both of us were feeling the altitude - from sea level to 13,500', with little time to adapt. At 13,796' Mauna Kea claims to be the higher than Mount Everest since the base of the mountain starts deep in the Pacific.

We saw this interesting red cone not far from us 

Looking down to the VIS from about half way down

As we headed down a young hiker, waved for us to stop.  He'd made the hike up, but was feeling the altitude and was tired and cold and wanted a lift down to his car at the VIS station.  We were glad to oblige.  He had just finished his residency in gastroenterology at Yale and was taking a well deserved vacation before the next stage in his career. Before we got down, a number of emergency vehicles and an ambulance were stopped on the road.  We inquired if they needed a doctor (they didn't) and learned the biker we'd seen had crashed.  Down at the VIS, we heard he'd lost control on one of the long steep grades - we hope he's doing okay.  It's a long drive to get emergency folks up and then back to the nearest hospital in Hilo.

With good weather forecast for the week, we'll spend at least a day at the National Volcano Park on Mauna Loa, and would like to visit the museum at the University of Hawaii, Hilo to see the exhibit on the observatories.  We drove past a cave on the way into town that looked interesting- only a few of the possible choices easier to visit while we're on this side of the island.



       

Bontanical Gardens and Other Adventures

Hilo is supposed to be the rainy side of the island, receiving over 150" a year, so we were delighted to wake up to sunny skies in the morning.  This gave us the opportunity to see both volcanoes on our walk to check out town in the daylight (and stop at a couple of bakeries).  It appears the clouds build and descend on the peaks during the day as the sun provides more heat.  A check of  the week's weather looks favorable - sunshine and moderate winds with slight possibility of occasional evening showers with highs around 80 and lows of 68.  Can't get much better than that!

Mauna Kea seen from a park in Hilo

One of the big banyan trees in Hilo

With Leonard trying  to show the size of the aerial root structure

With so many things to see and do, the problem is where to start!  After lunch, we headed to the Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens, touted as a  'Gem' and 'don't miss' in  our guide book and only a few miles away.  It was spectacular! Especially when I read that in 1977 it was a trash strewn gulch that was lovingly restored by a couple named Lutkenhouse who fell in love with the location and spent their lives restoring and improving it.  A trail wends down the valley with a number of side trails to interesting features and ends overlooking the Onomea Bay.  Over the years, more land has been added to the gardens, including a small lake.  The Lutkenhouses traveled around the world collecting rare plant species to add to their extensive collection. The pictures below are just a small sample of what we saw.

Ginger flower

Pink  Marcara

Mayan Rose

Pitcher Plant

Interesting bat-like flowers

Two of the parrots

When we returned to Hilo, we spent some time walking through Lili'uokalani Gardens on the waterfront.  The garden is a tribute to those lost in a 1946 tsunami that killed 159 people and destroyed what had been Hilo's Japantown.  After the disaster, town fathers decided to make the area a park rather than risk further loss of life in the next tsunami.  It is a beautiful and serene park, filled with ponds, bridges and pathways.  A nice way to end our first day.

Lili'jokalani Gardens

True to the guide book, it began raining after we were home, so we could enjoy the sound of rain falling on the palm fronds around the house.  It also prompted me to add light plastic ponchos to my shopping list.  They'll come in handy, and be lighter to pack and carry than our jackets.  We'll need the jackets when we spend time in the Volcano National Park where we'll likely get to 4000' with subsequent cooler temperatures.  The peaks are snow covered, perhaps from the blizzard Leonard noticed went through the other week.

We've seen a number of interesting birds and after trying to identify them using birding web sites with less than spectuclar luck, I bought a book.  Here are some of the ones we managed to get pictures of on our walks.

Saffron finches
 

Common Myna

 

Yellow Billed Cardinal

Pacific Golden Plover 

Saturday is one of the big local farmer's market days.  The market is open daily, but only on Saturday and Wednesday  200 vendors participate, compared to 30 on the other days.  I stopped in to pick up a some fresh produce on a lite day, but wanted to take a look at the real thing, so after our morning walk I spent an hour wandering through the various vendors while Leonard headed back to the house.  The array of produce, prepared foods, crafts and baked goods is phenomenal, and my bag was full (and heavy) by the time I left.  Prices in Hawaii may be high, but were very affordable at the market.  I'm looking forward to the tasty Asian food I found at the market (and plan get for Wednesday's dinner there too!).  The downside of the day was a cruise ship was n port, packing the market with slow moving gray-haired folks.


We headed for the Akaka Falls State Park to view the 420' free fall plunge, one of the tallest in Hawaii, along with a number of other like minded folks.  We'd hoped to take the .5m trail, but it was closed for repairs, so we joined the rest of the folks and did the short hike instead.

Akaka Falls after a dry spring

On the way to our next as of yet undecided adventure, we stopped in the nearby small town to check out a wood working shop.  While we we eating lunch, Leonard decided to open the top of our jeep to get some cool air in the car.  For some reason, the 2 door version we have, doesn't appear to have windows that roll down, so he fiddled with the soft top and eventually got it open.  The problem was he couldn't get it shut again, try as we might.  Why they lease cars without owner's manuals, I find baffling, but we don't have one and after 30 minutes of trying every trick we knew, we headed back to the airport to get help, driving somewhat slowly while attempting to hold the top from blowing back.  Thankfully we weren't all that far out in the sticks!

Safely back at the airport, the agent wasn't having any better luck than we'd had.  Eventually one of the maintenance guys stopped and showed us  the tricks.  The back side zippers have to be unzipped, the top taken all the way back, and then with some pushing, shoving and aligning the top, it locks back in place.  Even though we know how to do it now, I don't think we'll try that again!  What was irritating was we could have done it with a manual in hand.

No longer headed N out of town, having lost about 1 1/2 hours, we checked out a few beach areas S of town..  Unfortunately there are few sand beaches on this side of the island, and with the tide and wind up, we looked for something else we could fit into a short afternoon.

Rainbow Falls, another must see, was close to town, so we headed there.  The falls were considerably shorter the Akaka Falls, and the skiywas cloudy, so no rainbows were in the offing.  It did feature a large cave  that had been hollowed out over the decades.  We also checked out the Boiling Pots a few miles further up stream.  The guide book says they are impressive with sufficient water flow, but with low water they were being used as swimming holes by those that were willing to slide down the hill,  We weren't, and decided to call it a day since Leonard appeared to be coming down with a cold.

Rainbow Falls with the cave it made

Sunday we hope our travel won't be restricted by the the Hilo Marathon closing roads.  Maybe if Leonard was feeling better, we'd sign up for the 2 mile walk - for a $25 registration fee each, we'd get a Tee shirt.  At least we heard the cruise ship announce their departure, so the crowds would be smaller what ever we chose to do.

Panoramic Pictures

We have included several Panoramic pictures in the blogs from Hawaii, Kauia, and Oahu. When you view the full size photo - zoomed  in - on a large monitor, say 24 Inches or so, you experience what we see when taking the picture.

Do this on a fast internet as the photos are 2 MB in size.

Leonard

San Francisco to Hilo, HA

Thursday we continued our journey to Hawaii with a 9 a.m. departure out of SFO.  It was a good thing we started a bit earlier than necessary as we had a bit of a mix up as to which terminal our Hawaiian Airlines flight was using.  Who'd have thought Hawaii was international, but it was. Leonard had read the terminal designation as 1 instead of  I.  We were not impressed with the signage at the airport which was less than helpful.  Eventually we found the correct terminal after short ride on the Air Tram.  Then, because our flight had a maintenance issue with a change in how to do the paper work,  there was about an hour delay in departure.  Thankfully we had enough of a buffer in Honolulu so catching our Hilo flight wouldn't be an issue. 

Signage in Honolulu was even worse than SFO, complicated by a lack of airline personnel to query for the location of the inter island flight terminal.  The one air port map we found was obscured by a trailer.  Eventually a Hilo local, headed home on the same flight, pointed us in the right direction.  It had been a long day by the time we finally arrived in Hilo, picked up our vehicle and found our AirB&B. 

Our AirB&B

We have a small house that is airy and light with enough sea breeze to make it comfortable.  What it didn't have was any spare light bulbs, and enough fixtures needed one, so we add that to our shopping list.  Our place was within walking distance to town, and after unpacking, we walked into town to check it out and pick up few things for breakfast, opting to eat dinner in town. It may have only been 8:30, but with the time changes, we were ready to call it a day.  We were tired enough that the chorus of the tree frogs only lulled us to sleep. We read a number of comments posted about how noisy and insistent their call can be - it does stretch from dusk to dawn, at which time it switches to bird song, which doesn't bother us either.

This odd couple appeared to be inseparable and greeted us as we went for our first walk - the duck riding on the dog's back, ear in beak, but we missed the photo op!

Hawaii - the Start

Talk about escaping by the skin of our teeth - our Tuesday morning flight was iffy what with a major nor'easter headed our way threatening to close down the entire north east corridor down to the D.C. area.  The morning dawned gray and bleak, with snow starting right as forecast, at 8, as we sat in the boarding area and was covering the ground while the plane underwent the deicing process shortly after 9.  Ours may well have been the last flight out, our daughter Melaina reported a friend, due to depart shortly after us, found the airport closed for the duration, with her flight postponed until Friday.  

As  the plane was being deiced, the captain came into the cabin to inform us we'd be departing, but things might be interesting in Chicago (which had hundreds of cancellations the day before) with snow covered runways and high winds.  Conditions weren't bad when we arrived with intermittent periods of snow with only a few inches of snow on the ground.  Our problem was waiting for our gate to be vacated - not sure why they didn't change gates since a number appeared to be free.  Our 40 minute wait cut our transfer time down to minutes and when we arrived at the gate for our SFO flight, they were boarding passengers.  Not surprising, given the number of cancelled flights from the east coast, our plane wasn't full, a rarity these days.  No need to sit 3 abreast!

Half Dome at Yosemite National Park as seen from the plane 

As arranged, John and Nan, my brother and his wife, met us at the baggage area and took us for a wild flower walk at Edgewood,a nature area, for a welcome stretching of our legs before continuing to their house.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and a walk was just what the doctor ordered after 7 hours sitting in economy airline seats.  The hike gave Nan a chance to to rehearse her Saturday morning guided  wildflower tour, her first for the season.  It is a lovely area, and a real gem in an area where open areas can be difficult to find. 

Walking in Edgewood with Nan and John

John arranged for us to go for a sail Wednesday with friends, Tom and Debby Martin, on the Great Escape, their Ericson 35. A real treat for us since we've never sailed on San Francisco Bay. Although it was a long drive into the city where they keep their boat, it gave us easy access to the Bay with a variety of interesting destinations.  After some discussion, we headed for Angel Island.  While it wasn't as sunny as Tuesday, the tops of the towers on the Golden Gate bridge disappearing into the fog, we had a nice breeze, giving us a great sail across the Bay. A treat for those of us who haven't been sailing since October.

Underway to Angel Island

Great Escape on the dock at Angel Island

We made use of the park docks on Angel Island and after lunch in the cockpit, we headed ashore to explore the island.  After watching a movie about the island's history, we hiked to a lookout area with a great view of the city and Golden Gate Bridge on the perimeter road.  Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to circumnavigate the island.

Map of Angel Island- the island has an extensive history

Sea lions lounging on the docks

The fog had lifted by the time we headed back, giving us great views of the bay and city.  As we approached the city, 3 kite surfers came streaking toward us with the latest in board design using hydro foils like those used on the America Cup contenders. On the second pass, we had one on either side of the boat, doing a good 40 kph.  Wow, they really moved!  The day was a real treat for us and we enjoyed meeting Tom and Debby.  Maybe we'll have an opportunity to repay them should they ever be in our area.

Blue bird

San Francisco with Alcatraz in the fore ground

Golden Gate Bridge

The fog had lifted by the time we headed back, giving us great views of the bay and city.  As we approached the city, 3 kite surfers came streaking toward us with the latest in board design using hydro foils similar to those on the America Cup contenders. On the second pass, we had one on either side of the boat, doing a good 40 kph.  Wow, they really moved!  The day was a real treat for us and we enjoyed meeting Tom and Debby.  Maybe we'll have an opportunity to repay them should they ever be in our area.

Kite boarder with hydro foil

A very enjoyable day!