On the fourth day of our visit we stopped in Volcano National Park on the way to Hilo. Fantabulous. Visitors can hike the 4km Kilauea Iki Trail that circles half of the summit of the crater and then dips across the cooled lava inside the crater. Walking across the lava field is like walking across an alien landscape. Plus there are steam vents along the trail! The steam comes from rain water that collects underground, hits the super heated air coming out of the vents and then BLAMO!..steam. It’s not the dangerous sulfur fumes. You can see those volcanic gasses in the huge cloud billowing out of the volcano in some of the pictures below. Those fumes are the reason why part of the park is closed to visitors at this time.
The waterfall pictures below are taken at The Inn at Kulaniapia Falls outside of Hilo. The inn is a bed and breakfast with its own private waterfall! It’s nestled in the hills overlooking Hilo. It’s a bit of drive to get up there, you drive through macadamia farms and pass private homes on the twisty one lane road, but if you want peace and quiet this might be the place for you. The rooms are half swanky and half chintzy. The door to our room was thin and cheap like a dorm room door and the pillows were hand-me-downs from someone’s grandma. They were all compacted and thin. Seriously, why put expensive sheets on pillows like that?! The buildings looked like something that the Dharma Initiative would have made if asked to make a resort. One half resort, one half cult in the middle of nowhere. But the grounds were fantastic! Not just for the physical beauty of the place. There were the sounds of the waterfall and the night songs of the invasive tiny Coqui frog.
Since we only had one more day left in our visit, we didn’t even bother going to Hilo. We went back to Volcano to see more volcanos!
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