We started out on the Crater Rim Drive, which is a 27 mile loop around the Kilauea Caldera Volcano Crater. We weren't able to go around the whole loop because almost half of it was closed due to high amounts of sulphur dioxide gas, and of course the area that was closed was where we had the best probability to see "live lava". We stopped at several lookouts to see the large crater and the very active main fume cloud. The best view we had was from the Jaggar Museum. I wish we would've been able to stay until dark because this was the place to see the red glow from the crater at night.
We eventually made our way to the Thurston Lava Tubes. These tubes were formed during a very active period of the volcano. It was really neat to see these in the middle of the rain forest. Next we hiked the Kilauea Iki Crater Trail through part of the rainforest onto the crater floor. It was really neat to walk and hike around old lava flows and to see fissure, from eruptions and earthquakes. We climbed up on a huge pile of lava rocks to see a large steam vent. We were able to find the main source and bend down to get close to feel the full steam coming out. It was definitely hot! On our hike back out of the crater it started to rain so our visit to the Volcano National Park was cut short. We did drive to a devastation trail and to see the lava runs from 1969-1974. It was a neat site with as far as you could see being nothing but black hilly lava runs/rocks. In some places vegetation was starting to come back.
On our drive back to Kona from the Volcano National Park we stopped a Punalu'u Beach. This is the famous black sand beach on the Big Island that is known for beached turtles. We saw a group of 5 taking their afternoon nap right near the water line. 4 of them were quite large, and 1 was considerably smaller. We walked around the beach a bit and saw 2 more turtles napping. And of course, I had my picture taken with one! :) I love turtles in case you couldn't tell yet. There were signs saying you have to stay 15 feet away from them. We were probably a little closer than that, but other people got less than a foot away from them and probably could've been bitten! The black sand beach was also a beauty in itself. It was made from years and years of erosion of the lava rock.
And now for our last adventure in Hawaii.... we ended off the evening with a manta ray night snorkel in Keauhou Bay with Sea Paradise. We tossed this idea around for awhile, but I left the decision up to Dallas so we kind of decided at the last minute. I was extremely nervous about this 1) for myself because the manta rays are very large in the wild (up to 16 feet wide we were told), and 2) for Dallas, as he has a fear of being in the open ocean, especially at night and if there is a possibility for sharks.
We had about 25 people on our manta ray night snorkel. The company provided the snorkels and wetsuits for us. Our boat driver, Eric, was very knowledgeable about manta rays. The ones we saw are specific to Kona and live only along the Kona coast. They have named a lot of the manta rays and keep track of them night after night when they do these snorkels. Once we had our manta ray education and safety briefing we got suited up and into the water. They have a flotation device with lights attached to it that they put in the water to attract the plankton (what manta rays eat), and for us to hold onto. We were each given a swim noodle and had to swim out to the flotation device, hold on to it with our hands, and put the noodle at our ankles so that we were completely floating on the surface. We were in the water for about 5 minutes before we saw our first manta. This one was HUGE! One of our tour guides said it was Melainah Ray who is about 14 feet wide. It was probably another 30 minutes or so before we saw anymore rays. It was chilly in the water, even with the wetsuits on. We did see trumpetfish all over the place. They were quite friendly swimming in and out of all of use. Right before it was time to get out of the water we had another 3 mantas swim under us. One female, Jana Ray swam circles underneath everyone. And then we think it was Melainah Ray that came back and was doing barrel rolls right underneath us, and got probably a foot from Dallas and I right near our face. It was very unnerving but completely awesome at the same time. It was definitely a neat experience and we are both glad we did it. We both had co-workers recommend the manta ray night snorkel and it is also listed as one of the top 10 things to do on the Big Island by travel companies.
NOTE: Click to enlarge the photos.
Steam vents from the Kilauea Caldera Volcano.
The main crater and steam vent.
One of the seismographs in the Jaggar Museum.
Inside the Thurston Lava Tube.
The beginning of the rainforest trail down to the crater floor.
One of the many fissure we saw on the crater floor.
Dallas and I by the large steam vent in the crater we hiked around.
One of the several devastation trails.
Punalu'u Black Sand Beach - 5 of the 7 napping turtles we saw.
Me with one of the other napping turtles.
This was the only picture we took during the manta ray night snorkel. We realized that pictures weren't going to do anything justice as it took a lot of photo editing to get the photo this far. So Dallas switched the camera to video mode and we have the entire thing recorded with our waterproof digital camera. We are working on getting the videos imported to my computer to share on the blog. Right now they are only on facebook.
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