Tag Archives: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

The Numbers Game #11

A distant view of Pu'u O'o vent from the Napau Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A view of Pu’u O’o vent, when it was erupting, from the Napau Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 132.

You can see more responses here.

A parachuting clown hangs from a tree.
A flying clown. That’s all the world needs!
A grasshopper on a curved stem
A grasshopper keeping watch.
Banana stalk flies mating on the spadix of an Anthurium schlechtendalii
Two Banana Stalk Flies doing, well, you know what.
A rock sits balanced on the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii
A well balanced rock on the North Kohala coast.
Post office boxes in Hawaii
Couldn’t resist taking this one at my local post office. I can run this several times!

Hawaiʻi on Fire

Daybreak reveals the onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point.
Daybreak reveals onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point in April 2016 (Original post here).

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Iconic Places and Spaces.’ See more responses here.

I wasn’t sure what to post for this, but Kilauea is about as iconic as anything on the island, so I thought I’d post some photos from volcanic activity that I’ve seen since I moved here. Captions on the photos with a link to the original post.

Kilauea lava pours into ocean as people watch from the cliff
Lava from the Pu’u O’o vent reaches the ocean in July 2016 (Original Post here).
A lava breakout from the Kilauea lava flow.
A hike to the July 2016 flow revealed surreal scenes like this one (Original post here).
Lava from Kilauea Volcano’s Pu’u O’o vent enters the ocean as if from a firehose.
This fire hose of lava was a short-lived feature of the 2016 flow (original post here).
In April 2018, lava in Halema’uma’u Crater spilled onto the crater floor. (Original post here).

A window to my world

A view through the windows of Pepeiao Cabin in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Looking out through a window at Pepeiao Cabin in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Through a Window.’ See more responses here.

A variety of photos this week, with captions on the photos.

Two Common Waxbills in Hawaii
A pair of Common Waxbills seen through the bathroom window. It’s a good vantage point for watching and photographing birds, so long as I remember to clean it once in a while.
A view through a window at the old Bond Library in Kapaau, Hawaii
Looking through a window into the old Bond Library in Kapaau, currently in the process of renovation.
Rain falling in North Kohala, Hawaii, seen through a vehicle windscreen
Looking out from my old truck on the drive down to Upolu Airport.
A view from the air of Kohala Ranch in Hawaii
A view of Kohala Ranch through a helicopter window. I like how the white fencing stands out.
Windows at a building site in hawaiiA broken window in Hawaii
A look through new windows at a construction project at Hapuna. Sadly, one of the new windows already had something go through it.

Thurston Lava Tube

Inside Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

I visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park recently, with friends from the mainland, and towards the end of our visit we stopped by Thurston Lava Tube. These days the tube is known as Nāhuku, which means “the protuberances” in Hawaiian. There aren’t any protuberances in the tube these days, but it’s still fun to walk the dimly lit tube, imagining magma rushing through it, until the eruption stopped and the tube drained.

Inside Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Ka’u Desert Trail

A view of the Kamakai'a Hills on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
My lunch spot with a view of the Kamakai’a Hills and various kinds and colors of lava.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘I’d Rather Be…’ See more responses here.

It had been a while since I went hiking, for various reasons, and it’s something I was missing, something I’d rather be doing. So last week, I headed down to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to try the Ka’u Desert Trail. This backcountry trail has been on my list for a long time, but I had never done it before. For one thing, it’s about as far from my house as one can get on the island. For another, it’s directly downwind from Kilauea Volcano, so when the volcano is active and the trade winds are blowing, gasses blow across the length of the trail.

The latest eruption of Kilauea is currently either paused or over, so gas emissions are much reduced, and last week, the trade winds had given way to winds from the southwest. So off I went.

A sign on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Signs explain the rich history and geology of the area.
An ohia the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Tenacious Ohia trees grow in the lava.
Ohia flowers and a bee the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Ohia flowers are a magnet for bees…
Ukei flowers and a bee on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
…as are the native Ulei flowers.

The trailhead is several miles west of the main entrance to the park, with a strip of parking along the highway. The first mile of the hike is also known at the Footprints Trail. It’s a sort of paved path that threads through ohias to a small building that houses footprints left by early Hawaiians in volcanic mud and ash. Alas, I couldn’t identify any footprints in the display. Shortly after the footprints, the path breaks out of the vegetation into open lava fields. This isn’t a tropical Hawaii walk, this a bleak hellscape Hawaii walk. Or is it?

The Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
A view of the Kamakai’a Hills from the trail junction.
The Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
The trail was rerouted here, from its previous path, for reasons unknown.
A cairn on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Cairns mark the trail, some bigger than others.
The Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Walking on the trail removes the top, crumbly layer of pahoehoe lava.

The trail ascends gently to the only junction for miles around, at Mauna Iki. To the left is a trail back towards the heart of the park. The Ka’u Desert Trail heads to the right and into backcountry wilderness. Mauna Iki was the site of an eruption in 1919 and the trail traverses the lava fields from this eruption.

The Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
A’a and pahoehoe lava flows can be seen side by side.
Ropey pahoehoe lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Gold colored ropey pahoehoe lava makes it look even more like ropes!
Folded lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
The lava has many weird and wonderful folds and shapes.

Much of the trail is over pahoehoe lava, which is rounded and much easier to walk on than jagged a’a lava. The trail is marked by cairns and single rocks placed alongside it. It’s pretty easy to follow with just one or two parts where attention has to be paid to make sure one doesn’t stray.

Bronze pahoehoe lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Bronze colored lava.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Bands of red in the lava.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
A crack in the trail…
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
…revels shades of orange within.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Blue and gold lava flow.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Colorful and dramatic, but slowly nature returns.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Colorful ropey pahoehoe lava next to smooth.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Blue lava!
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
The patterns and colors reminded me of Roman mosaic floors.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Bold color and markings.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Plants gain a toehold in the cracks and provide a splash of different colors.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Don’t stray off the trail. There are holes and thin spots everywhere.
Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
Bright colors and bold shapes can be seen along a lot of the trail.

It wasn’t far along this part of the trail that I first encountered blue lava. That’s right, blue lava. Who knew? But not just blue. There’s bronze, pink, red, orange, gold, and who knows what. I’ve seen colorful lava on the Puna Coast Trail, but this was more varied and quite wonderful. In places the trail crossed this colorful lava and I felt bad for walking on it, though as I hiked I could see many more patches of color out in the lava fields. It’s not wise to leave the trail since there are many lava tubes, some with very thin ceilings.

This is an out and back trail and I turned around once I reached the Kamakai’a Hills, after about 5 miles. It’s another 2 or 3 miles to the next junction where there is a small cabin.

Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. See more responses here.

Colored lava on the Ka'u Desert Trail, Hawaii
The trail crosses one of the fields of colorful lava.

Halema’uma’u trail and crater

A view of Halemaumau Crater at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Recently, for this month’s Becky’s Squares theme of “Walking” (See more responses here), I’ve been posting some local walks. Today, I thought I’d revisit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and one of my current favorite trails there.

The top photo is taken from the Byron Ledge trail which crosses the edge of the Kilauea Caldera to join the Halema’uma’u trail. From this junction, the original Halema’uma’u trail traverses the caldera to the edge of Halema’uma’u Crater. That trail has been closed since 2008 because the volcano has been, and currently still is, erupting there. Kilauea Caldera is large and the eruption is two miles from the trail in the top photo, but I always get a bit of a tingle from walking across the caldera floor so close to volcanic activity.

That’s not the only reason I like this trail though. It arrives at the caldera floor by winding down from the rim though some lovely tropical foliage and a moss-covered cutting through rocks that I always stop and photograph even though it doesn’t change from one visit to the next.

A section of Halema'uma'u Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A section of Halema'uma'u Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A section of Halema'uma'u Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.