|
Gr8fulJ420
strange but nota stranger


Registered: 02/17/01
Posts: 2,778
Loc: 0 moco
Last seen: 1 year, 2 months
|
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
#5370665 - 03/06/06 12:08 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Last weekend the wife and I spent 4 nights on the Big Island-- Hawaii. The first two nights we camped at a somewhat remote drive-in campsite, our third night was spent at a hike-in site in the wilderness, and the fourth and final night I got a room for us at the Volcano House Lodge.
Hope you enjoy the photos! We had another great adventure. There is sooooo much more of this island to explore! It's got as much landmass as all the other HAwaiian Islands put together-- TWICE! Flights from Maui to Hawaii were about $160 r/t.
Aloha, shroomery!
 The western entrance to the park. The sign at the main entrance is all modern and new-looking. IMO, it lacks that oldschoo NPS charm.
 Just outside the boundary of the park is a feature called The Great Crack. It's a break in the lava that runs about 6 miles in lenth, varies between 40 and 60 feet wide and is 50 feet deep or so. Supposedly since scientists began detailed measurements of the crack 60 years ago there has been little to no change, so hopefully it won't break and fall off in our lifetimes. That will be a major, major tsunami event when it does!
Lava is everywhere in this park. Signs mark past flows which destroyed swaths of forest, overtook roads or built up another layer of ground. At the end of Chain of Craters road you can scamper across several miles of fairly recent spills to get a view of the still-evolving Hawaii coastline.




Napau Crater Trail -- Pu'u O'o Overlook
 Agr8fulchick surveys the barren landscape ahead of us: 8 miles of uneven, sharp and shadeless lavafields. You can just make out the outline of, and the steam emenating from, Pu'u O'o-- the source of all the lava of the current eruption. This trail will take us as close to the cone as civilian personnel are allowed to venture.
 About halfway to through the trail is the Makaopuhi Crater, the largest pit crater in the park. It is 1 mile long by .6 mile wide and is 430 feet deep. The last time this spot was active was in the mid 60s.
 The Napau Crater Overlook is the end of the line for most day-hikers. We are two and a half miles from the Puu Oo cone in the background. We set up camp close to this spot, took a nap, and then continued the remaining way to the end of the trail.
 These tall columns of lava are hollow on the inside and called "lava trees." When the lava originally flowed there was a tree where each of these columns stood. The trees held the lava back long enough that some of it solidified around the tree in a column, before the tree burned away from the heat. Empty columns of lava mark the spots where trees once stood.
 Agr8fulchick at the end of the Napau Crater Trail-- literally. We're about 8 miles from the trailhead at this point, but not as remote as I wold have wished. Every 30 minutes another helicopter would fly overhead taking a load of tourists on fly-bys of the Pu'u O'o cone. Pu'u O'o is the splater cone built-up from the current eruption cycle of Kilauea. It has collapsed several times, which accounts for the uneven appearance and warning signs at the end of the trail.


After going all the way out here we hiked 2.5 miles back to our campsite and made supper. The next day we returned via the same route back to the trailhead and our car.
FLOWERS
 A Lehua blossom, from the 'Ohi'a tree. These are everywhere!
 This is a kahili blossom, a type of protea flower.
 A variety of orchid we saw during our hike to the Napau wilderness.
|
oDin
Registered: 08/12/99
Posts: 5,789
Last seen: 10 years, 7 months
|
Re: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park [Re: Gr8fulJ420]
#5372381 - 03/06/06 09:07 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
wow, that is seriously a cool hike. nice pics!
when i was in the bottom of the grand canyon a few heilcopters flew over...i found it very intense as the berfore and after were ultra serene. im almost getting to the point that they should have sections of parks off limits in airspace also....helis seem to empower people to see stuff they otherwise are to lazy to trek to.......handicap and elderly excluded......fat amerikans not excluded
|
Annom
※※※※※※



Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 6,367
Loc: Europe
Last seen: 8 months, 9 days
|
Re: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park [Re: Gr8fulJ420]
#5373017 - 03/07/06 12:08 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
wow! I wanna go there! Nice pics, thanks for sharing!
|
nickpdx
Registered: 11/15/04
Posts: 154
Last seen: 12 years, 1 month
|
Re: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park [Re: Annom]
#5379716 - 03/08/06 11:17 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Awesome photos!
I did the Chain of Craters hike to where the lava runs into the sea last June - what an unhospitable place!
I'm actually growing the same orchid that's in your last picture...I purchased some starts while I was on the Big Island.
|
|