13 July 2006 Chain of Craters Road

On the way to the Jaggar Museum,we discuss where to have lunch. There is the Kilauea Military Camp, which does mess hall chow. But with post-9/11 scares, we have to call ahead, which we didn't. We settle for Lava Rock Cafe in town. But first the museum. It sits on the rim of the caldera and overlooks the Halema'uma'u Crater.

You can see the yellow streaks of sulphur clearly in the crater. We take the picture required to log this as a geocache find (our first today) and snap a pic of the benchmark we spot. It's blazing hot, so the air-conditioned museum is a welcome sanctuary. But we have to squeeze in with several busloads of coach tourists. We watch a lava-flow video and go "wow". There is a line of seismographs that detects movement under us and other areas in the park. Halema'uma'u is rocking! A lookout point near the crater is a short drive away, but it's just too darn hot to even think of going there, especially since it doesn't look like there is a shelter of any sort.

Lunch at Lava Rock is terribly unhealthy - a burger and southern fried chicken. We order more heart-friendly chicken wraps for our twilight hike later. We return to My Island to a different room - we have moved to bigger premises, with sorta ensuite shower/toilet. We pick up the B&B's torchlights as they are more powerful. Back we go into the park, and down the Chain of Craters Road (you can guess why it's so named).



First stop: Devastation Trail. It's so devastated by an eruption, there is nothing to see except for a mama pheasant and her chicks. No nene (the endangered Hawaiian goose).


Next up is Devil's Throat. It's not on any map, but the B&B lady has X'd it on ours. It's a deep pit crater, and because it's not on the tourist map, it isn't cordoned off. We gingerly creep to the edge to look into it. We set up camera for virtual geocache. We use HB's camera as it's less likely to topple in the wind, but I have problems with the self-timer. The first shot has me running into the frame of the picture!


We drop by a couple more craters - can't remember their names - before we look for the much-hyped petroglyphs. Not many cars are parked at the trail head. The path in is poorly defined and sometimes I just look for footprints on the ground. It is NOT a good place to get lost in at night. It takes us a good half-hour before we reach the boardwalk. Many of the rock etchings are faint. But the sun is lower in the sky and casts nice shadows. Uhm, we step off the boardwalk onto the rocks (shhhh, don't tell on us!) for a closer look. On our way out, a woman on her way in asks, "Is it worth it?" We give a nod, but we're not sure if it really is worth the 1-hour trek.

As we follow the curve of the road, we can see the Pu'u O'o eruption in the distance. It's daylight, so all we see is the steam as lava hits water. We stop at a lookout point (that does not overlook the eruption). It's so windy, we battle to get to the shelter and are pushed along when we walk back to the car.



By the time we get to the start of the foot trail to the eruption, there is a long line of cars starting out from the ranger's station. It is 5.15pm. The road ends there - it is blocked by solid lava. There is a sign to the Holei Arch and a warning about dangerous waves. I want to see that, but with the sun setting, there's no chance of seeing it. Our hike will take all the daylight hours and then some.



Along with other lava lookers, we brave the rocks. After we leave the reflector-marked trail, we are scattered in all directions. Some higher up on the mauka side, and some, like HB and I, closer to shore. We didn't check at the ranger's post for where the flow is best seen, so we may not be heading towards the best viewpoint. It is 6.30pm when we break for dinner at the second beacon - they mark every half mile away from the end of the reflector trail. Our boots look like we've been walking on nails. We are near the posted coordinates for Hot Rox geocache.

That is the view in the photo above.

We struggle to hold on to our wraps and salad. The veggies keep getting carried off by the wind! HB wants to go to the point nearest to the eruption logged by a geocacher. I am happy where we are until a couple comes along and says the view from there is amazing. We get up and trudge on till we pass the 4th beacon and reach a warning sign. We ignore it and cross over the barrier. By 7pm, we take our spot over a cliff lookout. We watch the light show till the sun goes down half an hour later. A man comes around asking if anyone can help take a boy named Brian back to the ranger's post. He is a stray the man picked up on the way here. I think it may be the boy we saw earlier scrambling over the rocks by himself - no adults, no torch, no water.

We slink away uncharitably - we have our own battle to fight with the lava under dim torchlighting. A ranger stops us as we gingerly make our way back and asks after Brian. We can't see his face, but we tell him Brian may be at the cliff overlook. He thanks us and we go back to trying to find our footing in the dark and just gunning for the blinking beacons. Sometimes we aren't sure which is the nearer beacon - it's hard to gauge distances in the dark. We can hear disembodied voices here and there. Once in a while, a light bobs into view as another party makes its way to the eruption.

We gawk at the stars. They are really huge and plentiful in the dark. We are relieved when we see the reflector trail. By the time we are back on tarmac, the moon emerges from the cloud. It has taken us TWO hours to return to the very welcoming sight of the ranger's post. The ranger who spoke to us earlier recognises us and thanks us. Brian has been found and is already in car with parents. We wonder how they get here so fast.

The park is devoid of people at night. Only a few cars out on the unlit roads. I keep wondering when we are going to hit a camper staggering out of the bushes, but we reach our B&B without incident. It is 11pm and it is near midnight when we stumble exhausted into bed.

Geocache count for the day: 3