Hawaii Volcano National Park

It was rainy on Sunday morning, and we were feeling a bit lazy. But I did want to get to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We probably gave the park short shrift, due to the weather. It really wasn't nice enough to do any hiking. The drizzle wasn't conducive to any serious photography either. But we drove the crater rim drive, as far as we could (half is closed due to VOG and steam from the volcano). We drove a little bit of Chain of Craters road to get a look at some of the older craters.

In the main caldera of Kilauea, there is a smaller crater called Halemaumau. A vent opened in Halemaumau last year and has been erupting steam and smoke ever since. Here it is:

From Hilo

We did do the short walk to see Thurston lava tube. The jungle is really interesting here. I half expected to hear Tarzan come swinging through on monkeypod vines:


Here's the tube. I know it's a bit fuzzy, but at least you get an idea what a lava tube looks like inside. It was, fortunately, large enough not to trigger my claustrophobia. I didn't try to go into the smaller segment at the end



And here is one of the volcanic craters along Chain of Craters road: