Victory or Death!

Jami and I headed to the Big Island today in search of volcanoes and adventure.  We found both.  We are just that good.

The airport was a little exercise in not slapping a customer service representative even though they really deserved it.  A couple changed tickets, seat reassignments, and plans to call the hotline and complain later and we were on our way.  The airport on the Big Island is tiny and not completely walled in. If anyone has ever been a mall in Florida or California it is a lot like that.

Once we had picked up our luggage and our car it was time to get the show on the road.  Volcanoes National Park get ready for trouble.  Trouble in the form of two Midwestern gals in a Scion.  One of the coolest things about this particular part of the trip is that I get to stay in lodging in the park.  Not just any lodging, military camp lodging.  Lodging that I wouldn’t normally have access to.  Also, this camp was used to house prisoners of war during WWII.  It is much nicer now.

Here is where the adventure kicks in:  it’s a little late in the day so we decide to save Volcanoes NP for tomorrow and head out on a little sightseeing/sand gathering mission.  This would almost lead to our doom.

Technically the road that leads to the places we want to go is not to be driven on by rental cars.  The map clearly says “Do not drive on this road”.  This should have been a clear clue to us not to go here.  However, we are both fairly stubborn in our own ways so we said screw it.  We passed an old wind farm, a new wind farm, the detritus of the old Pacific Missile Command, and finally got to the southernmost tip of the US.  Eat your heart out Florida.  The cliffs were steep and it was windy but also really gorgeous.  Phase one of the mission completed it was time to move on to the next step.

Normally I am not much of a hiker.  I have made attempts in the past.  Mostly when it involved boys.  I have already told Jami that she should feel honored I even attempted the hike I am about to describe considering I had nothing to gain.

As we parked at the trailhead we ran into a few people who had finished the hike.  They looked wiped out but assured us as we passed “it was worth it.” In all of my guidebooks the hike was described as long and undulating.  About halfway in Jami admitted her books called it treacherous.  The 2 ½ mile hike itself is actually no big deal.  Then you get to the payoff and you are done for.  At the end of the trail is a set of two adjacent coves.  The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is emerald sand.  To get to the sand you have to climb down into the coves. The most sand is in the big cove just off the trail.  The sand we collected was from the small cove down the grassy, rocky, steep side.  This is best done at low tide.  It was done by us as the tide was coming in.  At this point I will say only that both Jami and I survived the unintentional swim we took, and as a bonus my phone and camera also survived.  Jami’s did not.  We got the sand.  We also were a little delirious and a lot wet as we slogged the 2 ½ miles back to the car. 

But we both agreed, it was totally worth it.