Volcano National Park

Happy Mother's Day! 

Right upon waking up at 5:30 am Hawaii time, 

got to watch Chris give a Mother's Day shoutout over YouTube church.

Nick recorded it and texted to make sure we didn't miss it.

Then a cute photo montage from Courtney 

and a violin medley from Marty accompanied by Lizzie.

(Cried the whole way through).

The drive to Volcano National Park is about two hours from our hotel.

We listened to Don't Miss This and an All In podcast on the way and great parenting discussion.

We decided to take the five mile hike around Kilauea Iki rim and through the crater 

and loop back starting at Devastation Trailhead

So glad we did! Such fascinating landscape -- jungle and barren lava crust side by side.

Up the other side.

Overlooking the "lake" we just hiked through.

Something great about eating lunch in the car in the jungle.

After lunch, we walked one mile down the old Crater Rim Drive 

that lava flowed over and ruined in 2018.

Couldn't see deep into the Kiluea main crater, but fascinating to see how often and recent 

the volcano is active and changing the infrastructure.

At the end of the road was the crater where we saw active lava bubbling from our helicopter tour in 2018!

Next we drove north to the steam vents and Kilauea Crater overlook.

Then Chain of Craters Road to the ocean and viewing the black rivers of rock from past lava flows.

Lava Sea Arch

On the way back we hiked through Mauna Lua with a large fissure and lava formations.

And my initial!

By 4:00 we'd seen pretty much all we wanted to and were hiked out.

But we decided to stay until night when you can see the glow from lava at the crater.

We drove to Hilo for dinner (Casual restaurant "Pineapples" was delicious!) 

then to the waterfall in Hilo before driving back to the park.

By 7:30 it was dark but also raining and freezing.

Unfortunately the clouds were blocking any glow and we were too cold 

to wait around to see if they cleared. But our day was amazing otherwise, so no complaints.

And so grateful for podcasts to keep us awake for the two hour drive home!