We started day seven of our Hawaii vacation eagerly anticipating we would be flying around in a helicopter taking an aerial look at Volcano island but unfortunately, our flight was canceled due to poor weather conditions.

Since we couldn’t see Volcano by air, we decided to drive and see Volcano by land. The park didn’t open until 2:00 p.m. so we had to kill some time and we decided to visit a nearby “black beach” given that name because the sand is pitch black. The sand is actually pulverized black volcanic rock that has been pounded by the sea over and over again to the point where the sand is fine grain.

After visiting the black beach, we headed over to the area of the beach where lava was freely flowing into the pacific ocean on the east side of the island. Despite the large plums of steam from the lava colliding with the ocean, we did manage to take a few shots of the actual lava pouring out of the rock.

We then headed to the top of Volcano Island where we drove up 3500 feet above sea level to check out the volcano’s craters. Unfortunately, because of a recent eruption (a couple of weeks ago) most of the roads were shut down and one was covered with molten rock (see picture). There was serious sulfur dioxide emissions coming from the volcano so most of the park was close. Add to it the poor rainy weather conditions and you’ll understand why we only managed to get a few good shots of the crater.

While at the park, we did manage to visit an old lava tube from the inside. This particular tube spanned about 300 yards underground and we managed to walk the whole thing without incident. The tube was dripping water from rain above, slippery and had quite a few puddles that needed to be navigated in near pitch black conditions.

After our Volcano Park visit, we headed back home. It took a while to drive from the beaches to the top of the mountain and back down again so much of our day was spent driving between locations and the drizzly weather didn’t help much either.

Categories: Hawaii
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