Ah...Deals...Beckee's Deals: Beckee's Deal with Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Beckee's Deal with Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park

8:30 PM

I would go out on a limb and say that visiting Kilauea, an active volcano, was probably the highlight of this trip. Not to downplay the awesomeness of everything else, but this was just SUCH a cool experience! Before I play show and tell about our day spend at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, I am going to just throw out yet another plug for this book:

And once again, I have nothing to do with the writers or company printing this book, I just really love it. (Honestly, I wish I had a relationship with them, like maybe BFF's?! But I don't.) :) So this is #NotSponsored. Just Beckee's obsession.
That being said, I just want to say that this book has a particularly helpful 20 page section all about the Volcanoes. We used it for our day there and it was like having an incredibly helpful tour guide with us. I think we #NailedIt on our day at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park!
Here's what we did:
1- First we stopped at the Visitors center to use the potty's and to check out all the available activities. Then we started our real adventure by crossing the street down to the Helema'uma'u Trail which led us to the back of the Volcano House where we had our first look at the Kilauea Caldera. Wow-even in the light we could see lots of steam rising from the lava below!

2-Next stop-a short stop at the Kilauea Steam Vents. That was pretty awesome to see all the steam rising all around and to feel the heat from them when we were close. They can be really hot! Careful of getting too close when you are checking them out! Do you know what causes the steam vents? They are areas where rain has seeped into the ground then been heated by Kilauea and they come up as steam. We went when it had just been pretty rainy, so there were LOTS of steam vents! It was cool!

3-We stopped at the Kilauea Overlook to see more of the caldera rim. You can also see the Halema'uma'u Crater from this view point.

4-Jagger Museum-this is where the best views of the crater is for sure. Plus the Museum itself is cool and full of awesome info (and of course some awesome souvenirs to purchase). We came here this time during daylight hours. It was cool, but trust me-it gets even cooler at night!

5- Next Up was the Kilauea Iki (Or little Kileaua). Kilauea Iki is a small pit crater next to the main summit caldera.

6-We walked through the Thurston Lava Tube. It was much shorter than I thought it would be but a totally worthwhile activity to do. Really cool! (Sadly, my phone was charging in the car during this activity, so I don't have any pictures-I will see if anyone in my group took any I can share here!)

7- Mauna Ulu Crater Overlook was the next stop.

8-We drove to the End of Chain of Craters Road. There is a 7 mile hike from here down to see where the lava is currently flowing into the ocean. It is a rough walk over old lava, so not one we could do with our group, but if Wes and I are able to go back sometime when it is still flowing, we will for sure do this one. If you do want to try this hike-bring PLENTY of water and plan for a long, somewhat rigerous hike (from what I have hears). From where we went though, we could see the Holei Sea Arch:

And the steam from where the lava was hitting the water:

SOOOO cool!

9-By this time, the sun was setting

10- So we headed back up to Jagger Museum to try to see the caldera in the dark. By the time we got up there, they were sending most cars to lower parking lots and forcing people to hike 1-2 miles up to the museum. But guys, the "bus" paid off in this moment! When they saw our huge 15 passenger van coming up, they let us through to the main Jagger Museum parking lot where we got just about the last parking spot and just hopped out and saw one of the most amazing things I have ever and likely will ever see.

The pictures are awesome, but they still do not do it justice!!!
Holy cow! Everything about this day was so amazing, but I will never forget the absolute beauty of the Kilauea caldera lava at night! Do not miss this if you are heading to Hawaii's Big Island!