Sunday we visited Volcano National Park to see the caldera of Kilaua. It’s about an hour drive from Hilo. Going up through the rainforest it was very drizzly. About half way up the mountain there was supposed to be a clearing where you could see Pu’u O’o vent, which is where the current eruption is happening. One of the videos on Cielo Grande shows a lava flow which broke from the vent caldera on September 21, 2011. We saw a vent but on the way up weren’t sure it was Pu’u O’o.
Since it was drizzly and early, we stopped in the town of Volcano to the only winery on the Big Island. There are only two wineries in Hawaii. It doesn’t seem that it is easy to grow grapes in the volcanic soil which is only 3 inches thick. Plus there is the problem of sulfur in the air and the many days of moisture which makes mold easy to grow. They did make a Honey Wine (Mead) from Macadamia Nut honey that was good, and another Mead infused with Black Tea from the Island that was also very good and different. We also bought a white wine that was blended with fermented Guava that had a nice local taste.
Pictures of the Volcano don’t do it justice. The caldera of Kilauea is big and deep and a picture doesn’t give enough depth. Smoke is rising from Halema’uma’u Crater on the far edge of the caldera. At night you can see the orange glow of lava at the bottom. This crater was supposed to be the home of Pele. We hiked around the rim to the Jagger Museum past some steam vents. It was nice to be away from the tour buses.
We also stopped at the Thurston Lava Tube on the way to a hike where we thought we good get a better look at Pu’u O’o. We were lucky that only one other group of people were walking through it when we were there. It can get pretty crowded.
We finished our visit with a short hike to Pu’u Hulahula. Across lava fields from Mauna Ulu (1969). It was a nice walk with views of Kilauea smoke in the distance. Pu’u Hulahula is an old crater that is now grown full of jungle, but from it’s summit we got a good look of Pu’u O’o in the distance pluse many other sights. On a clear day you are supposed to see much more, but it was great what we saw.
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You guys are having a very nice trip. Everything is so pretty and it is amazing what grows out of the lava. That drink looks really good Dennis and I hope Bob got one too. We are doing fine. The fire east of Julian is still burning I guess but we can’t see it from here. It was in the paper I looked at on line. They said 2000 acres but no buildings. Have fun and look forward to your pictures. Lov ya
Leave it to you guys to find the only winery on the Big Island. We hiked Kilauea with George Grove of the Kingston Trio when we did the cruise round trip from San Diego. A lot of what we saw, we didn’t know what we were seeing. HAHA! Having lunch sitting on some of the vents was an experience not forgotten.