Hawaii - October 04, 2003

"Some days are better than others."

I honestly can't decide if this day was a success or a fiasco.

To me, Volcanoes National Park was the must see item on this trip. As such, I felt the decision, made against my objections, to save the trip till the afternoon was a mistake. A circular trip around the island is some 200+ miles, and we'd be traveling at least halfway around the island to reach the volcano.

The assumption was made that it would take about 2.5 hours to travel the distance. (100 (or so) miles, approximately 50-55 MPH = 2 Hours + 30 minutes stoppage time.) If we left about 2:30PM, we'd arrive sometime after 5PM and then we'd wait around for sunset, so we could see the spectacular glow of the lava at night. I wanted more time "on the ground" to explore the park, and perhaps even drive around to Hilo, but we knew that a toddler and grandparents were not going to be able to hike much, nor would they sit well in the car. The lava report showed that the flow was on the surface and visible the previous day and only about 1/4 miles from the road. Optimal conditions for me to see the lava and not have to leave everyone in the car for a long period of time.

With that plan finalized, if not fully to my satisfaction, we set about our morning excursion. We attempted to re-create our drive from the previous morning for the benefit of the in-laws because it was a pretty drive. We weren't able to re-create it exactly, but we did drive through some nice areas and could look down on the ocean.

We stocked up at Costco, on both food and gasoline. I wanted to buy some cool flashlights, but we had no real use for them. Afterwards everyone took a nap in preparation for the road trip, while I went out exploring around the timeshare.

We hit the road at 2:30 and headed south. The highway runs somewhat inland, and therefore up the side of the mountain.

For some inexplicable reason it took us till 4:00PM to reach Manuka State Park, which is only about 35-40 miles from where we started, and still over 50 miles to go. We stopped for a restroom break and let Michelle run a little bit. There was a nature trail that I would have liked to followed, but there wasn't time. Michelle and I went down it a short distance, but the trail became rapidly covered with cow droppings, and I didn't want to risk Michelle having an "accident' with one of them.

10 more miles down the road and we detoured to South Point, the southernmost point in the United States. It's a slow, 16-mile detour and when we got there, once again, I felt the water had gotten just that much scarier.

South Point is a volcanic cliff that drops 20-30 feet straight into the water. The fishing is great here because it's deep water immediately offshore, and that's very obvious when you look down off the cliff. The waves didn't seem to be crashing into the cliff very violently and there are several small fishing boats tied to the cliff. Each of them was pulled by the current as far out to sea as possible, leaving their mooring lines stretched completely taught. It was easy to imagine that if you fell in the water here your next stop would be in a block of ice in Antarctica - the next land mass south of here.

We left South Point at about 5:00PM with only 40 miles to go. Once past South Point you are on the windward (therefore wet and tropical) side of the island. You're also on the east side of the 13,000+ ft summit of Mauna Loa. Funny thing about going from a western coastline to being on the east side of a mountain: the sun suddenly disappears.

By the time we reached the entrance to the park it was 6:30PM and it was dark. We were also over 4,000ft in elevation and cold, which none of us were dressed for.

We were not to stay at the high altitude for long as you have to drive about 15-20 miles back down to sea level. The road circles Kilahuea crater (which we couldn't see in the dark) down past several recent lava flows (which we couldn't see in the dark) and then to the ocean (which we could barely see in the dark.)

Volcanic eruptions are usually measured in days. Until 1970, no volcano ever erupted for more than a year (Mauna Ulu 1969-1974) Kilahuea has been erupting since 1983, constantly re-writing our understanding of volcanoes. Needless to say, no one knows when it will stop, making a trip to Hawaii just to see lava somewhat of a gamble. Sometimes the lava is only flowing underground in lava tubes. Sometimes the wind is blowing the poisonous gases from the volcano in such a direction that it is unsafe to see the flow.

We were in luck. The volcano was still active, poisonous gasses were only "moderate", the flow was above ground and only 1/4 mile from the end of the road. (It didn't used to be the end of the road until it got covered in lava.)

We could actually see the lava from some distance up the road, in the near absolute darkness of the night, it looked like the embers of a small forest fire burning across the side of the mountain. It was 7:30 by the time we reached the end of the road and parked. There were a hundred or more cars parked along the road. Our 2-hour drive had stretched into a 5-hour odyssey.

Now things began to fall apart. The "trail", while only 1/4 of a mile, was really more of a series of marks placed along treacherously sharp and dangerous lava. It also lead more or less straight up the side of the hill. Average round-trip time to hike the trail was 2-4 hours, and it was impossible to do without a flashlight. We were all hungry, tired and the gasses were giving me a sore throat. I never got any closer to the lava than the parking lot. Thousands of miles traveled just to be stopped just 1320 ft from my destination.

Why then, did I say I wasn't sure if this was a fiasco or a success? I did see the lava. If we had arrived during the day, we could not have seen it without hiking. Michelle and her grandparents certainly could not have hiked it. Michelle was still afraid of being alone with her grandparents so Chu-Wan would had to stay behind while I hiked alone and there's nothing at the end of the road except a parking lot - I could not have left them alone for 2-4 hours. Had we arrived during the day, I would have seen nothing.

I decided I'd do my best to come back on my own before we left Hawaii.

By the time we got back, it was so late that we just went to bed without dinner.

On to Day 7 ==>

Hawaii - At the timeshare	Hawaii - Chu-Wan	Hawaii - Manuka State Park	Hawaii - Manuka State Park	Hawaii - Manuka State Park
Hawaii - Manuka State Park	Hawaii - Manuka State Park	Hawaii - South Point - Looking north	Hawaii - South Point -	Hawaii - South Point -
Hawaii - South Point -	Hawaii - South Point - Looking south. This is the southernmost point in the United States. Next stop: Antarctica	Hawaii - South Point -	Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park	Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park - Lava flow is visible (if not clear) in the background
Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park	Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park	Hawaii - Volcanoes National Park