Hilo, Hawaii Day 4- October 21, 2009

On the morning after our anniversary, we had a flight scheduled at 9am to Hilo, Hawaii. The point of going to Hilo was to go to the Volcanoes national park. When I was there in 2004, we were able to get about 3 feet from the flowing lava after hiking about 3-4 miles in. It was probably one of the neatest, most surreal experiences ever. So, Tim and I thought it might be fun to go see the park (and hopefully flowing lava) again.

Here we are driving in our red jeep just after arriving in Hilo which is only about a 30 minute flight from Maui.

The Hilo bay- Hilo is pretty cool little town. It's on the rainier side of the big island and definitely feels more native than the Kona side of that island. It's also pretty eclectic. We went to downtown Hilo and found a natural grocery store where we stocked up on some snacks for the day.

Driving out of Hilo towards the Volcanoes. Hello, Seattle weather. YUCK. At least our skin was happy since we got so burned the day before.

And we made it!

Entering the park. Once we got to the visitor's center we were very disappointed to find out that the flowing lava was about a 2 hour DRIVE away and the only way to see it is to go on a "night hike" in. I'm guessing that's because you can only faintly see it in the dark. So, we scratched that idea since our return flight was that evening and it didn't really sound the most appealing anyway.

Here we are just after learning the news, trying to decide what to explore at the park while we were there. We were both surprised at how strong the volcanic fumes were that day. That coupled with the torrential downpours made us skip the idea of a hike. The fumes were not that strong when I was there a few years ago.

A view of the steam vents in the crater at the park. Not the most clear picture due to the weather that day (and my broken camera) but pretty cool still, regardless.

And another shot of the steam coming out of the crater.

A view of the lava fields.

And another view....

And one more. Seeing lava is still pretty cool. Just amazing at how new that earth is- and that plants can actually start to grow in it.

After we drove around for a while, we decided that we had seen enough. It was a rather disgusting day outside and we were ready to get back to our vacation of sitting on the beach. So, we went back to Hilo and got the first flight out, back to Maui. There was a layover in Honolulu so we didn't get back to Maui until around 4:30pm and back to the hotel until 5:30pm or so... just in time to get cleaned up and go to dinner. All in all, I think we are glad we went and explored but we were kind of disappointed that it wasn't as cool as we thought it would be. Always good to see a new place, though and we can't really complain too much because we were still in Hawaii!