Monday Part 1: Volcanoes National Park

We left Waikoloa Monday morning and traveled south past Kona along the highway that circles the island, on our way to see Volacanoes National Park.  This was Robert's one desire for our whole Hawaiian getaway: to see and walk on hot lava!!  For some reason he seemed determined that he should get his shoes at least a little melted!  We drove for what seemed like forever (2+ hours) through lava flows on the west, rainforest further south, past the southern most tip of the United States (Ka Lae) and then north again until we reached the park.

First we stopped in at the visitors center to put on more clothes (it was only 60 degrees at that elevation) and get our bearings.  Then we drove up to the Steaming Bluffs for our first veiw of of the Kilauea Caldera and Halemaumau crater.  Halemaumau was billowing a toxic cloud of sulfer dioxide, so we couldn't take the road all the way around the park.  After treking part of the way down a trail, we decided to drove on around to the Jaggar Museum Volcano Observatory for our closest look at the crater steam vent.  There were several very knowlegeable, self-taught volcanologist there, and we learned where we could go see the lava flow into the ocean.

I'll tell you about the rest of our day in part two.