Volcano National Park Hawaii
After an interesting day in the Hilo area which I documented on my last big island Hawaii travel report post, we toured Volcano National Park. But before that, we decided to spend the next morning to see Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the two big mountains of Hawaii. These were not on my original planned itinerary but since we were doing great time seeing much of the island already by doing our own thing rather than take organized tours, we had extra time do see these mountains.
So right after breakfast in Hilo, we hit highway 200 and drove west towards Mauna Kea. As we got closer to the mountains, we could again feel the air temperature get cooler. We no longer needed to turn on the air conditioner in our car. As we got closer to Mauna Kea, we noticed that the landscape also changed as it got more barren with less plant life and trees.
Going Up Mauna Kea & Mauna Loa
We decided to take the right hand (north) road up Mauna Kea first. As we drove up, my rental car started to get really sluggish. When we finally arrived at the ranger station, our rental car was barely going faster than 20 miles per hour even when I floored the gas pedal. It was also cold enough that jackets were warranted up there.
The ranger on duty told us that the rest of the road up Mauna Kea where the observatories were, alternated between paved and gravel. He suggested that unless we have a 4-wheel drive, we should not venture up any higher. This is why during my Kona travel report post I mentioned that we would eventually find that we could have used a SUV instead of a 2-wheel drive vehicle. We chose to be on the safe side and not proceed any further up.
Since we were in the area, we also wanted to try and drive up Mauna Loa on the south side of highway 200. This drive was even more barren than the road up Mauna Kea. Although the road was nicely paved, it went through a lot more curves and lifeless landscape. We even went through the clouds.
Here is a building that was either a radar or weather station as well as some stops we did along the way to check out the lava rock closer.
The photos do not really show just how vast this lifeless terrain is. It’s incredible to realize that this is actually Hawaii if one is use to seeing just photos of nice beaches and oceanfronts. It’s almost like we are on another planet up here.
Once again, the higher we drove up, the more our car engine became sluggish. The last photo shows the weather observatory station at 10,000 feet. There were only two or three other cars parked up there and the only people we saw was this local couple who were up there with their two dogs. They told us that the summit of Mauna Loa is another three hours of hiking since no further roads go up.
We obviously were not prepared to make it to the summit because of lack of time as well as needed supplies for such a trek. Going up to the summit would be an all day activity that should start early in the morning with the six hours of hiking plus maybe another hour or two of driving in total. If I ever return to big island Hawaii, I’ll definitely consider allocating an entire day to make it all the way to the summits of both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.
We drove back down Mauna Loa and much like with Mauna Kea, it was always faster on the way down the mountain than going up it. I just didn’t want to overheat the brakes. We went back on highway 200 to Hilo for a quick food lunch stop and our next destination would be Volcano National Park down highway 11 about 45 minutes from town.
Hawaii Volcano National Park
Before geting to the entrance to Volcano National Park, there is Volcano Village which has several restaurants, shops and even a small lodge to stay overnight. The entry fee to the national park itself was $15 per vehicle but this was good for seven days.
After a stop at the visitor station to check out the map of the national park, we drove to the first interest spot which had the steam vents shown below.
Next was the only active volcano on the island. The closest we were allowed to venture to the volcano was the viewing area next to a museum. Here is the active volcano below shot during the afternoon.
Our plan next was then to go down the road south towards the ocean to find the Arch but stop at any other interesting sights along the way including the Thurston Lava Tube shown below. Lava tubes are like tunnels through the mountain created by lava flow.
When we arrived near the ocean 30 minutes later, we finally found the Arch which was formed when lava flowed into the ocean.
After finally seeing the Arch, we went back north to Volcano Village to have dinner since we wanted to remain in the area in order to return to the viewing area to see the active volcano at night. We got back there by 7:30 pm and were quite fortunate to see the glow from the volcano as shown in the photos below. But by about 8 pm, clouds rolled in blocking off the view of the crater completely. We waited for another hour but the clouds remained. So we were very lucky indeed to get at least the 30 minutes of glow that we saw.
Walking On A Crater Floor
in the morning, we headed back to Volcano National Park to walk on the floor of an inactive crater. We started at the same parking lot where the Thurston Lava Tube was and found the trail that took us down the side of the crater.
It was a long way down but at least it was pretty well shaded with trees all the way down until the bottom where the floor of the crate was.
Here are a few shots taken showing the crater floor. The photo at the top of this post is also of the same crater.
We hiked across the crater floor until we got to some raised lava mounds which we climbed on top of. We were hoping to see some steam vents since we did see some from the top yesterday but none were sighted this morning.
Seeing no steam vents around, we turned back and made our way back up the side of the crater back to our car. This hike back up is pretty challenging since it is a long way back up especially in the heat and is not recommended for those who are not physically fit. Once you go down to the crater floor, the only way back out is up on this trail. I think they should have posted warning signs alerting people of the time it would take to come back up.
By the time we got back to our car, we were drenched in sweat. It’s a good thing that we did not do this hike during midday when the temperature would be even higher as it was already hot enough for us Canadians who are used to winter temperatures!
At least we got in to do some hiking since we did want a relatively active vacation. Originally, this trip was promoted to members of my social Meetup group GTA Free Spirits and we do go on hikes. But I am sure that if more of our members came on this trip, many of them would have trouble with this climb.
After drying off and some much needed refreshments, it was time to depart Volcano National Park and we got to see it in a much more time efficient manner than the tour groups we bumped into. Of course we did not get the detailed lectures but then again, we did not pay the $100 tour fees either. So I’m glad we did toured big island Hawaii on our own with a rental car.
Our final attraction to visit was another black sand beach this time at South Point which is the most southerly area of the island. We found it and even saw a few sea turtles in the water.
Now heading back up the west coast of Hawaii to complete our clockwise tour of the island, it was about 2 pm when we stopped for some Kona coffee since it appeared that we were driving through coffee plantation region. We arrived back to Kona from the south after circumventing the entire big island of Hawaii by about 3 pm and had an early dinner of local fish Ono Ono which was delicious.
I dropped Thomas off since he was staying one more night at the Kona Tiki Hotel. For me, it was time to return the rental car and catch my return flight back to North America which I had to endure two more sleepless red eye flights which I won’t get into.
Overall Summary Of Big Island Hawaii Travel Tour
Overall, I would say that big island Hawaii was worth visiting. The time we spent was just about right. We could have used another day to climb Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa but we pretty well saw everything we wanted to see. Although the volcanoes and lava were interesting, I think it’s still a long way to travel to see them. One can see similar sights in Costa Rica a lot closer to home if you are based in North America.
The scuba diving itself was mostly average but the manta rays were out of this world. The dives with them were truly world class and the main highlight of the trip for both myself and my diving partner Thomas. They really made this trip worthwhile for us.
Would I ever return to Hawaii?
I would return to big island only to dive with the manta rays again and perhaps climb Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. So this would be a quick three night stay at most and I would spend the rest of a future trip checking out other Hawaiian islands which are suppose to be quite different from the big island.
I may take the Hawaiian islands cruise run by Norwegian Cruise Lines one day as a way to check out all the islands on a single trip. But one thing for sure is that I won’t be bringing my dogs to Hawaii anytime since they quarantine them upon arrival.
