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Hawaii (Big Island) Vacation 2005 Photo Album
or Mom and Dad went to Hawaii and all I got was to watch the Sugar Bowl by myself with my VT sweater on...
We stayed at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel because we enjoyed our stay at the Maui Prince at Makena Beach. We got
a free upgrade from the Terrace View room to the Oceanview room. Woo Hoo! You've got to love off-peak travel.
The view from our hotel room in the morning.
We found our dream house driving along highway 19 to Volcano National Park. We pulled off at a scenic viewpoint
along the drive and saw the dream house behind the rightmost palm leaf from the trees in the foreground.
We stopped to go along a "scenic drive" about 20 miles north of Hilo. The drive wasn't really that scenic but we
did find this excerpt from the Duh Files when we were trying to turn left back onto highway 19.
One of the highlights of the visit to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was hiking down the Kilauea Iki trail. You
hike down 400 feet onto the crater floor and then get to walk along the crater. The Park Service rates this trail as
"moderate to challenging" but it is pretty much a piece of cake. The hiking through the rain forest is lightly graded
and has a bunch of switchbacks. There is some rocky terrain on the crater floor which is pretty much the only difficult
thing about the hike. Here is Mike on the crater floor. You can see some people and a pile of rocks
with steam vents in the background.
If you visit the park, do this hike! I'd say we saw 12-18 people during the 2 hour period we were hiking the trail.
You take my picture while I take yours... (nerds)
Mike has climbed up the pile of rocks on the crater floor (see the previous picture). And he is taking a picture
of Cathy who is taking a picture of Mike. This picture gives a decent appreciation of how large the 1959 lava lake is.
This picture is from the National Park's site and is probably from when the current lava flow went over the end of Chain
of Craters road in 2003. Unfortunately, the lava flow was 6 miles from the end of Chain of Craters road when we were
visiting the park. 6 miles over jagged, rocky terrain was not in the plan so we didn't get any up close shots with the
lava flow.
Cathy with another excerpt from the Duh Files. I'm not positive but I think parking here was also a violation of
the rental car contract.
You have to park down by the Ranger station at the new end to the Chain of Craters road and then hike down to the lava
flow. There are signs that are supposed to warn you if it isn't safe. This one said that there was Extreme D.
Here is a picture of the active lava flow near sunset.
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