Volcanoes National Park

So a little over a week after we started farming, we decided it was time for a vacation. Okay, so my excuse was that it was my birthday! Anyways, we rented a car for a week and headed off around the island: first stop, Volcanoes National Park.

First off, we set up our tent at the more remote campsite. Now anyone who's worked with me before might recall that I have a tendency to lose or forget things (cell phones and credit cards in particular)...well this time, I forgot the tent stakes. Luckily, we were surrounded by volcanic rocks, and they did the trick pretty well.

So one of the many weird things about volcanoes is that they have their own rain shadow. Our campsite was on the leeward, or dry, side. It was kind of like New Mexico - arid with a few stubbly trees. But the landscape just a few miles away was tropical rainforest with huge ferns, moss, and other things tropical.


So as lava flows away from its source, it begins to cool. It cools faster on the top and will form a lava tube, which is really a cave except the walls and floor are really smooth. Michael and I explored the Thurston Lava Tube. It was really, really dark.


Just like a regular cave, it begins to form stalactites and stalagmites after a while. This one looks a lot more like poop than anything.



So we took the Kilauea Iki Trail, and it may have been the highlight of the park. The trail actually took us on a lake of hardened lava that was still steaming!



But life prevails, even here.

At sunset, the temperature started dropping, and by the time we returned to the campsite for a late dinner, we really had to bundle up.





The next day, we drove the Chain of Craters road all the way to the coastline. There used to be Hawaiian villages along the water, but molten lava doesn't discriminate when it picks its path. As it hits the water it makes the coastline really unstable, and oftentimes football field-sized pieces of land will just sink into the ocean with no warning. In the shot below, it formed an arch.



One of the endangered animals in Hawaii is the Hawiian state bird, the Nene. It's like a goose except a bit smaller and brownish-gray. There were signs all over the park like this one, except rarely would you actually have such a picture-perfect shot of the elusive Nene!