hawaii volcano national park

one of the day trips dave and i took was to the southern side of hawaii.
to the volcano national park.
due to the time change, and our inability to sleep in; the first few days on vacation we were up before 5am....crazy i know...but its true. the weather was warm, and the first few days there were crazy rain pouring down at 3am which woke me up it was so loud.
(here is my attempt to photograph the rain as we were getting into the car to leave)

due to our crazy sleep schedule, or lack thereof, we decided to take off before 6am for the volcano national park.
we even caught the sunrise

it was a beautiful drive



we were able to see much more of hawaii than just the touristy beaches and touristy downtown.

the drive took approximately 2 hours.

by the time we got to the craters, i was starving.
luckily along the way we stopped at a deli for some sandwiches.
so why not have lunch at 10am.



we decided to take a 4ish mile hike around the perimeter of the crater which takes you through a rain forest and into the dried up crater lake.

$2 for the self guided tour...and the good looking tour guide, well he is mine.


we knew there was a storm coming in, so we had to finish the tour/hike in less than 2 hours...so we booked it.


along the trail were numbered markers, which associated with the tour book, so my guide stopped and read to me all i was supposed to learn about what i was looking at.

i totally was paying attention.

the contrast from the rain forest to the bottom of the dried up lava lake was night and day....incredible.





we passed a few groups of tourists...and ohmyword...seriously, they bought these garbage ponchos, which were whipping in the wind, you could hear them from a mile away; all the while the local tour guide was in his shorts and shirt (probably laughing at them, but thankful for the mad profit he made off their plastic poncho purchase)

i digress.

the craters, the rain forest.

in the middle of the dried up lake were these cracked craters emitting steam and sulfur...definitely hot, but not too smelly.



we made it in less than 2 hours...the rain didn't pour, but it was misty and we were a little wet, but it was fun!


across the street from where we parked were the lava tubes.
which are caves that were created from when the volcano erupted and lava was spilling out with no place to go.

the caves were wet from the rain and the fact they were located under the rain forest.
nonetheless, amazing.

this is the view looking out of the lava tube


after the lava tubes we started the drive back up north, stopping along the way for a black sand beach, almost getting stuck in the muddy road on our trek to a green sand beach....those pictures next.