We didn't have a set itinerary while on the island. We had a list of possible activities and took it from there. On our list of possible activities was Volcano National Park. When I looked it up I learned that the Kilauea Volcano was currently erupting and we could see a lake of lava forming in Halema‘uma‘u crater! Well that sounded absolutely incredible. The best viewing times were when it was dark, so either before sunrise or after sunset. Because we hadn't adjusted to the time zone yet we woke up at 3:30am to make the drive to the other side of the island to see the lava. Unfortunately we timed it a little wrong and arrived a half hour after sunrise.
At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but when we arrived at the crater overlook we could really only see steam rising. We could see occasional burst of lava and that was cool, but we were a little let down. We enjoyed the view of steam rising from the walls of the crater anyway before heading back to the car.
Along the way the boys found worms resting on the road, black worms. They went to pick them up and learned that these worms can jump! They only have about one good defensive jump in them before they are done, but it was so cool to watch them move.
Since we were there at the park, we decided to check out the Thurston Lava Tube. It was early enough in the day that the lights hadn't been lit yet. We walked straight into darkness with just our cell phone lights as we explored. It was a little eerie not knowing what we were going to find there in the lava tube. It was a test of strength for little Dax who doesn't like the dark. Once we reached the end of the tunnel and realized it wasn't as long as we had thought, we decided to challenge ourselves. We turned off our cell phone lights and walked back through the tube in complete darkness. Well, mostly complete darkness, Kelton's glowing tennis shoes gave us some clues along the way as to where we were. That was pretty fun so we did it one more time before heading back to the car.
We went on with the rest of our day accepting the fact that we had missed our shot. But also accepting the fact that we were all very tired and jetlaged and needed to go back to the condo and sleep.
The next day our adventuring didn't turn out as expected, due to strong surf and wind, and we realized we might have another chance to see the eruption. Prepped with soggy beach towels for warmth, flip flops for lava rock walking, and half-eaten burritos from lunch, we went back to the volcano ready to wait as long as it took to really experience the lava. It was definitely more crowded this time around and we had to park in overflow parking. Luckily the walk from there was a beautiful hiking path that led us to the closer parking lot.
From there we knew the way. Down at the viewing point there were two or three rows of people lined up to see the crater. We weren't in a hurry so we laid down the towels and made camp to wait for full darkness. We entertained ourselves by eating whatever I had in my backpack and playing kid jenga.
As the darkness fell the view just kept improving. Every so often we'd get up from our nice warm picnic site and worm our way through to the front to see. It was so incredible. We could see the lava spouting, flowing, and lighting up a huge section of the crater. Since the eruption began in September 2021, over 20 billions gallons of lava have flowed into the crater, rising the level of the crater floor by 348 feet.
We didn't have binoculars and our cameras were poor substitutes to see the details of the eruption, but we could still see it glowing red and fierce down there.
We stayed long enough to see the darkness fall completely and the stars come out. The juxtaposition of stars, moon and lava was pretty awesome. But we still had to walk back the mile and a half to our car in pitch blackness then drive two hours home. It was time to call it a night. It was definitely worth the double visit and all that time spent in the car. How often do you get to see a lake of lava?!
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