Sojourn in the Sun, Part 6: Volcanoes National Park 01/11
Watching an island grow, right before our eyes
OUR STAY IN HILO begins with a tremendous view of Mauna Kea in the early morning light. It's surprisingly (to me) clear, and the observatories at the top of the mountain are clearly visible. I had expected Hilo to be cloudy and rainy but instead the skies are blue and sunny, with a minimum of humidity-induced haze or vog. (You met vog several days ago, as I was walking up to the dive shop from Kailua-Kona.) There's an eruption in progress at Kilauea Crater, thirty miles or so to the south, and the gas it has been emitting has been carried westward over the hill creating haze on the Kona side but here it's wonderfully clear.
A pinpoint moon in the sky over Mauna Kea, as seen from our hotel in Hilo.
See? I told you: you can see the observatories with no problem. I have a friend who used to work up there, but recently retired; he told me "I still shiver every time I look up there."
A better look at the moon. Not a bad image of something almost 239,000 miles away, in my opinion, considering it was taken with a hand-held camera without a tripod for stability.
We have a full schedule for the day: a visit to the Hilo Farmer's Market (including breakfast and a presentation by someone our tour organizers know), followed by a visit to Volcanoes National Park. While there we'll hike around, down into, across, and back out of the Kilauea Iki, the crater adjacent to Kilauea, then drive along Crater Rim Road to a vantage point where we can see the lava lake formed by the current eruption.
There's a reason these birds are called the "common" mynah: they're everywhere.
The hike proves to be marginally strenuous and, at something approaching 12 or 13 kilometers including the steep descent into and equally steep climb out of the crater, is about the limit of what I can manage comfortably for the day. But it's absolutely worth the effort, to experience a terrain so completely different from anywhere else I've ever been.
The path leading down into the crater is pretty steep, but it's nicely shaded so the walk is pleasant.
A panorama from one end of the crater. This crater was created in a 1959 eruption, making the rocks in the floor younger than several members of our tour group. for more information about this eruption, see https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/1959-kilauea-iki-eruption
This Kalij pheasant (thanks for the correction, Bill) blocked our path for a moment after we had returned from the crater floor to the rim, then disappeared into the underbrush.
Oh yeah- thanks for the correction! I wrote peacock but meant pheasant, based on what Google Lens had told me earlier. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
With the main walk done, around sunset we head for the viewpoint from which one can look down into Kilauea. The eruption is still going on, with a fire fountain bubbling in a lake of very, very hot lava. It's breezy and chilly up top, though, and despite the windbreaker I brought along I'm eager to get back in the van after about a half an hour of watching the eruption.
Arriving back in Hilo, we have plans to meet a friend for dinner. He lives in Hilo and we've corresponded over the years on an internet forum, but it's our first in-person meetup. He's selected an excellent place in old downtown Hilo, and we enjoy a couple hours of get-to-know-you conversation over dinner and dessert.
