When's Dis Suckah Gonna Blow

Hawaii Volcano National Park is situated in a rainforest, the verb of course is rain as much of the day we experienced very little sun.  A quick trip to the visitors center, a short video, and a quick tour with Ranger Dave (one of the geeky gays - with enough social skills to keep it interesting) gave us a great introduction to this natural wonder.

I certainly experienced lots of "Did you know?" moments and learned so much.  The Hawaiian Islands are all formed from the same hot spot.  After an island forms, the slow moving continental plate moves the island along.  The oldest island in the chain is sinking and wearing away and will one day be subsumed under another plate.  How cool is that?!

Wildlife evolved on the island fairly isolated and developed a benign tranquility where as Australia evolved in isolation and everything became deadly.  I'm just sayin'!  Disappointingly, the lava was not flowing into the sea during our visit.

First stop in the park?  The Thurston Lava Tube.  The name? Apparently, a wayward bunch of castaways with a billionaire on board were stranded on this island, and the tube was named for the billionaire.  They tried out the name, "Lovey Tube," but the name never took hold because of the double entendre nature.

Next, a four mile hike through Halema'uma'u Crater.  Quite frankly, we were wet, tired and never more elated.  The foggy rain made it difficult to see at times, and more difficult to adequately photograph but also gave the whole area an other worldly jurassic quality.  Many of the cracks leaked heat and steam reminding us the whole area sits on magma ready to blow.

 Leaving the Crater we witnessed a faint but colorful rainbow as the sun peaked from behind the clouds for three minutes.  One can understand how the early Hawaiians saw this violent display as the wrath and alternatively the blessings of Pele the goddess.

Dave the Ranger told an interesting myth about Pele and the Ohi a Lehua tree.  A Hawaiian Prince Ohi was in love with the maiden Lehua. Pele, the goddess, was also in love with Ohi.  Because the prince was in love with the maiden, a rebuked Pele turned the prince into a tree.  The prince appealed to the other gods, and although all were sympathetic to his plight, the gods also knew not to cross Pele, fearing retribution, so they turned Lehua into the flower of the tree forever uniting the lovers.  Great story.

The tree happens to be incredibly adapted to the Volcano environment.  It can be buried up to the a few feet of lava on its trunk and manage to resprout a new tree.  This amazing tree can shut down its respiratory process when the sulfur dioxide from the volcano gets too high.  The tree requires little water to survive.  Mother nature is way cool!

So, the hike out of the crater - hot, wet, sweaty and steep. It turns out we went the opposite way of the intended route.    As we entered the parking lot, rain started to really pour down.  We really felt the need to see glowing lava, and had to wait until dark for this privilege.  What better way to wait out the rain, a quick surprise visit to Suzie's house in Hilo.  Suzie is a vivacious friend of Rusty's from BW (Before Walt).  We hung out in the Lady Cave waiting for the kiln to finish glass art and imposed ourselves on Suzie for dinner.  What a generous spirit and cool glass artist.

Then, back to the volcano for an underwhelming red glow through the rain , fog, and steam...but, we saw it!  Hmmm, a bit under whelming.

Finally a long drive back to the hotel after an exhausting day, and bed at midnight thirty.