Today was the day. Today was the day this Midwesterner was going to see lava. It was going to be epic. I was going to see heat rising from orange ropes of liquid hot magma. I would hear the hiss of the steam created when the lava met the sea. At night, I would eat s’mores by the glow of the cooling seepage. Not so much.
I am here to tell you that even though the volcano is technically erupting the only observable surface activity at this moment is a smoking cinder cone and some kind of cool steam vents. That is not to say that this leg of the trip has been a bust. Oh contrare mon frair. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is awesome to its smoking core. There are massive craters here (one of which is admittedly a dud) where you can see the edges of lava lakes. There are hollow lava tubes you can explore Indiana Jones style. You can hike to the end of the road, which is not actually where the road ends so much as where the road becomes buried under lava and is impassable by vehicle. You can hike over a lot of the cooled lava which looks like giant welds over a lunar landscape. The view from the cliffs is pretty spectacular as well. The park is worth the price of admission and worth the hassle of a flight from Honolulu.
Activities outside of the park today involved checking out the Mona Lau macadamia nut factory, a black sand beach and a waterfall. The driveway to the factory is three miles long and takes you through a macadamia plantation. Every few hundred feet there are little fun facts posted along the road classic Bryl Cream ad style. You can also take a factory tour but it was closed for the day. I felt cheated as this was as close as I would ever get to reenacting the key scenes of my favorite character from Willy Wonka – Veruca Salt. Such is life.
Then it was off to a beach for a little more sand larceny and a turtle sighting. Sand larceny you say? Fine, more like petty theft but larceny has such a dramatic ring to it. While many places state you should “leave only footprints, take only memories (or photos or whatever)” I have yet to see such a sign in Hawai’i. We did hear tell of such a sign implying a large fine for those apprehended in the act of relocating sand from the beach to an unspecified location. However since that sign was never viewed by myself or my companion its existence remains hearsay.
The waterfall was lovely but a bit of a cheat as far as such things go. This may sound odd coming from me, but I think waterfalls are something you have to earn. You need to drive out of your way or hike a mile or solve pi to the 7 digit or something. This waterfall, Rainbow Falls, required driving 2 minutes off a well-marked road to a parking lot and walking 15 feet. Even the stairs to get to the top of the fall were easy to navigate. Such victories just feel hollow. The pictures are nice though.
Laundry duty called us back to the lodge early tonight as we fly out to Maui tomorrow bright and early and really needed to wash yesterday’s adventure off our clothes before we packed. Those of you paying special attention may notice I said Maui and not Kaua’i. Slight change of plans. You see Maui is where the other national park is.
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