On the Big Island, a visit to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park cannot be missed! As the newest island in the chain, Hawaii is still being added to by the active Kilauea volcano. The park can be adequately seen in a few hours, or explored over a few days. The park's website and the visitor center give advice on the best way to see the sites depending on the time you have allotted.

Having lived on the Big Island when I was a small child, I remember always taking visitors to the volcano. The most interesting sites for me are the steam vents, the Halema'u mau Crater, the Kilauea Caldera and the Thurston Lava Tubes. A visit to the museum is very informative.

The vegetation at the volcano is quite different. My favorite tree is the Ohia, with its red puff of Lehua flower. Hawaii is full of mystical stories, including the legend of Ohi'a and Lehua.

Take a sweater or sweatshirt as it's often overcast and cool. A visit to the volcano is a fascinating look into the creation of land. It's amazing, eerie, and totally cool!

Hawaii's Volcano National Park is located on the Big Island. This national park contains two of the world's most active volcanoes. The first volcano, Mauna Loa, is the tallest mountain on Earth and the other volcano, Kilauea, is known for spitting lava in the Pacific and transforming the island.

Visitors have the option of hiking on lava trails to get an up close and personal look at the land. There is also scenic drives that wind through the Ka`u Desert and a rain forest. Within this scenic area you can see birds and other wildlife, like the Nene in the pictures attached. The Nene is species of bird that is down to about 1,000 world wide.

The day we spent at the Hawaiian park it was very cold and windy (not what I expected for my first day in Hawaii). The cool damp weather really took away from enjoying the park. A couple of hours at the park was plenty of time their for us. If you are more of a hiker, you could spent a lot of time in the park.

We rented a car to get the park, but I know that you can also take tours by bus and small van operate daily from many Hilo and Kona hotels.

As you drive along Crater Rim Drive, about a mile from the visitor center, are the steam vents and sulpher banks. You absolutely have to stop here. If you thought the lava makes this place look like the moon, wait till you see the steam vents. The steam is produced by ground water seeping down to the hot volcanic rocks and returns it to the surface as steam and boy does it stink! It smells like sulpher all over the place here. If you park and walk to the crater, it really, really looks like the moon. A barren crater, spewing out ghostly steam all over the place, it’s kind of eerie.

You can walk for quite a ways and see the sulpher banks and the vegetation that grows in and around them. It smells like rotten eggs, but that’s what sulpher smells like. The sulpher is also very hot. We stood in front of one of the vents for a photo op, (see below) and wow was it hot!

Nature is such a wonder when you see things like this. It just boggles the mind how things like this occur. There are a couple trails here and you can walk out pretty far down into the crater. This is a great place to have lunch, as we did. We packed a cooler with sandwiches we made at the condo, and had a bite to eat on the moons’ surface. NEAT!

If you don’t have all day, to visit, I suggest driving the 11 mile Crater Rim Drive. You’ll see the steam vents, The Jagger Museum, Kilauea lookout, Thurston lava tube, Pu'u Pua'i Overlook and Halema'uma'u crater. This should take roughly 2-3hours, depending on traffic and how long you stay at the points of interest. Just grab a park map at the visitor center and plan your route.

As I said before, PLEASE don’t wear open toe shoes. Wear hiking boots and jeans and make sure you have plenty of water. There are no gas stations or convenience stores anywhere on the drive. Most importantly, have fun!

As you continue down Chain of Craters Road, there are many craters and pullouts to stop at and take pictures or hike, but as you drive, there is a point where you can see where the lava is flowing into the ocean. Now, this is something to see! You’ll recognize it by the smoke coming off the water. You won’t actually see red, flowing lava during the day, but seeing the smoke rise from the water was really neat. It just made me want to bypass everything else and get to the end of the road, so I could see it closer!

Keep in mind that there are only restroom facilities at the visitors center, Volcano House hotel, Kilauea Overlook, Jaggar Museum, Thurston Lava Tube, Namakani Paio campground, Kipuka Puaulu picnic area, Mauna Ulu, Kulanaokuaiki campground, and the turnaround at the end of Chain of Craters Road and once on that road, there really isn’t any vegetation to hide behind, so ‘going’ outside really isn’t an option.

There is a tiny snack bar at the end of the road, but other than that, the only other place to get food is a the Volcano House Hotel, which is right next to the visitor center. I hear they have a great lunch buffet, but it’s usually over-run with tour bus people.

So other than having to ‘hold it’ for the drive down the crater road, it was a really nice drive. The road does get a little curvy as you come down off Kilauea and head down to the ocean, but it’s no big deal.

Now where the lava crosses the road, was by far my favorite part of the park. In 2003, lava crossed the Chain of Craters Road, making it impassable. They even had to move the ranger station. Parking is about a mile away from the actual site, and parking is along the road. The walk to the end of the road seemed very long to me, but I had my Camelback, which is a backpack that carries water and has a drinking tube attached to it, for easy, hands free access. From the end of the road, we hiked out a little, to the ocean’s edge. Breathtaking! We were about 2 and half miles from the flowing lava and you may hike there of you like, just be prepared with water, etc. We chose to not hike out that far, even though I really wanted to... I knew I couldn’t handle a hike that far, over jagged rocks. The park rangers mark holes in the lava with orange cones, so people don’t stumble into them. There are no ranger guided tours to the flowing lava, but you are free to go as far as you like, just be smart about it.

If you want to see a really cool picture of the lava crossing the road, go to www.nps.gov/archive/havo/home.htm

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Volcanoes National Park is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Miles and miles of lava fields, steam vents, lava flowing into the ocean, lava crossing the road and lava tubes, there is plenty to see and do here and it takes all day, if not 2 days. The park charges a $10 fee per car, so even if you have 6 people, as long as they’re in one car, it’s 10 bucks and the pass is good for 7 days.

70 million years of volcanic activity has made the Big Island what it is today. A land that looks at times, like the surface of the moon. We went to the park from the Kona part of the island on Hwy 11. Just follow the road and you’ll run right into it… approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours without stops.

The Kilauea Visitor Center has a plethora of information about the island, its culture and its history. There is a 25 minute movie that plays at the center and there is a small museum and gift shop to walk through. This is the start of the volcano experience.

We drove down to the Thurston lava tube, first. This is exactly what it sounds like, a tube that lava flowed through at one point. It was named after Lorrin Thurston, who was a newspaper publisher who helped create the park. You would never see it from the street, as it’s over 350 years old and covered in vegetation. There is a steep walk down some stairs and the tube is lighted inside, but it’s still very dark and wet. Water drips from the ceiling, so don’t wear your favorite silk jacket in here and there are also small puddles of water that you’ll step in. This was a really cool thing to see. There are so many more lava tubes like this one, they just haven’t been discovered yet.

Next, we got back in our Chrysler 300 and drove down the Chain of Craters Road. This is where things start to look like the moon. Trees sprout up through 100 year old, hardened lava and you can see how the lava rippled as it destroyed and covered everything in its path. Amazing. The first major lookout point, has a raised platform and you can see for miles and miles and even see the ocean. We hiked down a little ways, but be careful! The lava is very jagged in areas and steep. Make sure you have really good, rubber soled, hiking boots to grab the rocks. It was really windy at this spot and I wished I had a jacket and some jeans on. I had long shorts and a tank top on, which made it quite chilly. The temperature definitely dropped when we got to Kilauea. Do not wear flip flops or open toe shoes here. You won’t be able to do any kind of hiking and you will want to, I guarantee it.

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