We started our day in the Park with a ranger tour of the Devastation Trail, a part of the park decimated by the 1959 eruption of the Kilauea Crater. With 50 years to re-grow, it's amazing how much has popped up and started growing in amongst the hardened lava and lava spray.
We then hiked on our own the Kilauea Iki Crater Trail that took us inside the Kilauea Crater. Amazing landscapes as we looped around the rim and then dropped down to walk across the crater floor. I'll post more pictures to flickr since it's hard to describe the amazing lava formations inside the crater.
It was really neat to actually see and walk right up to the steam vents on the crater floor and feel the heat coming up from below.After our hike we then went into the Thurston Lava Tube, a cave type tube formed when the outer crust of a river of lava starts to harden but the liquid beneath the surface continues to flow through. We brought along our headlamps so that we could explore the over 300 yard unlit extension by ourselves. Very dark, and very scary...although Doug won't admit it!
Definitely a highlight of the trip was driving out at sunset to see the active lava flow that is currently flowing into the Ocean a short drive outside the park. It was hard to capture a picture once it was dark. It really doesn't do it justice. We weren't able to get too close for obvious safety reasons, but several times we did watch the hot sparking lava splash up over the edge. Very very neat!
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