Jake and I spent last weekend on the Big Island. Since we already saw Kona we stayed about 30 miles out of Hilo in Volcano. We flew into Hilo Saturday morning and since we had the whole day to explore we made a few stops on the way to Volcano. There was a warm spring along the way so we stopped and went swimming. The water is volcanically heated but to me it seemed very sporadically heated. You could be standing in warm spot and 1 foot away from that spot is cold. Just as we were getting in it started to rain and as we continued to get in it started to downpour. Jake got in quickly while I ran over and moved our towels out of the rain to under a tree. Then I ran into the water. Just on the other side of the break wall was large crashing waves in the ocean. I was glad we went in there instead of the waves. We stayed there for about a half hour then continued on into Volcano and checked into our hotel.
That night we decided to hike out to see the lava. We saw the maps and since it said it was only a 1.5 mile hike we headed out. Our plan was to get out there before dark so we could see it in the daylight then stay there till it was dark so we could also see it in the dark. So we set out over the lava rock. There were reflectors on the rocks so we knew where to go. After hiking for a while we came to the end of the reflectors where there were some people sitting on the rocks watching the lava. It was still quite a ways off so we continued hiking. As we were walking I started thinking “man…this feels like a lot farther then 1.5 miles. But we still weren’t very close so we kept going. It started getting dark and we still weren’t there but we had flashlights and there were flashing light poles about every quarter mile so we continued. I knew at that point this hike was going to be a lot longer then anticipated. Once we got to the “Don’t go any farther” rope it was pitch black and not that far off in the distance we could see lava flowing off the rocks into the ocean. It was truly one the most spectacular sights I have ever seen. We took some pics and some video for a while. A couple came hiking down from up the rope and told us that if we hike up the rope we can see lava up close. That was what I was hoping to see the most so after a bit we hiked up the rope to the end and boy was it hot up there. When the wind blew toward us from the lava not only was it ridiculously hot but it was sulfur air so it stunk really bad. We couldn’t stay close for very long. We got about 10 feet from it though and took some pics of that. You can see them all on our photos page on Jake's blog. We stayed over there for about an hour and then we started the grueling task of hiking back. Just imagine hiking over lava in the dark with only a flashlight. We had to use the flashing light poles more on the way back then we did on the way there. By the time we got back we were both in so much pain it was unbelievable. We looked at the map again when we got back and realized why the hike seemed so much longer then what we thought we were doing. It turns out the 1.5 mile hike we planned on doing was just to where the reflectors ended and back. So the hike we ended up doing was the 7 mile (round trip) hike that takes you out to the danger line. I can’t remember last time my body was in so much pain.
The next day we did a few small hikes then went back to our hotel room and took a long nap. That was a pretty relaxing day.
Monday we planned on going down and hiking 1.5 miles (round trip) to see the petroglyphs but when Jake got out and tried to put his poncho on it was way to windy and rainy to even stay down on him. We gave up on that hike and the hike we were going to do after that one. Instead we went into Hilo and went to the tsunami museum. That was pretty cool. We got to learn about the dangers of living where we do from people that lived through past tsunamis here. We then went and toured the Lyman Museum and the Lyman’s house that is now part of the museum. After that we went and walked down by the water where there was a little park that looked like a Chinese garden. It was really pretty. We then headed back to the airport and flew home. It was definitely one of my favorite inter-island vacations we have taken.
