Not your "normal" volcano!

Tuesday morning: some sun, clouds mixed in. View from the bed is gorgeous (one important argument for us when we choose an accommodation), made it easy to get up at sunrise, which is only around 7 am,,,

Mauna Kea - one of the volcanos - seen from our room (left photo) before we departed for Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, an easy 35 mi/56 km drive. We had figured to see something like a single volcano (like in Italy or on Mauai), a mountain with a crater. Wrong, not so at all! Here on Big Island it's not ONE volcano, but several and the surface of the earth seems to be broken everywhere. In addition, there are lava fields and lush rain forest at the same time; visitors stand at the edge of the volcano already at the Visitor Center. Below the model and a map (c: USDS):


The last devastating eruption (lava flow) happened in 2018 and since then the volcano is considered "dormant" - for the time being. Extending from sea level to the summit of Mauna Loa at 13,677 ft (4.200 m), the park encompasses the summits of two of the world's most active volcanoes: Kīlauea and Mauna Loa. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park protects a wide diversity of ecosystems and habitat for numerous native Hawaiian species.

Other then pictured we were driving up through dense rain forest-like vegetation and only when we went on a walking tour (by accident with a German-speaking park ranger!) to one of the smaller side craters - Mauna Ulu (which was huge, too, pic below). Would have loved to get closer to the crater edge, but ranger told me not to ...



On our hike with Ranger Eric Hubner we learned a lot about geology and flora and, in general, in which strange formations lava can appear: thin and shiny as glass, in layers like tiles, like huge cow flops, caves, spirals or "sausages", tunnels or pipes, tree piles (trunks were burned and formed a hole), freshly plowed fields or healing mud, from almost black to light brown, from solid to very fragile and dangerous to step on. No restrictions by the way, for visitors in this park: they can walk as they want on their own responsibility.

After the tour we drove down Chain of Craters Road, to the Pacific, closeby the lava flow from 2018 (pic above right), stopped at a field of petroglyphs (pic below) - drawings done by Ancient Hawaiians - and at the former road which was overflown by lava in the 1970ies..

At the end of the day, closeby the Visitor Center is the main crater, Kīlauea (pic left) - which completely changed during the 2018 eruption and is huge and deep now. It's surrounded by a field of fumaroles (sulphur gas vents), whereas water steam is to be seen everywhere.

Even in not really good, rather rainy weather (no constant rain, but showers and mist, around 60 deg F) it was such an impressive scenery, hard to describe and even harder to take photos of. Too monumental - you have to see it with your own eyes. And, it's fully worth the trip to Hawaii!

Tired after over 15 km (8,5 mi.) of hiking, overwhelmed and hungry, we stopped at Kuhio Grill on the way back home. It was an "experiment"and we were fortunate: a simple restaurant with typical Hawaiian-Asian fare, dishes as Loco Moco (on pic), roasted rice with ham, hamburger pattie, egg and brown gravy - your typical "comfort food" - or Hawaiian Lau Lau (pork or fish wrapped in layers of taro leaves, steamed), still affordable.

Nene (or Hawaiian goose, is a species of bird endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and often to be seen in the park. Nene are under protection and the official bird of the state of Hawaiʻi: