We start the 4-mile Kilauea Iki (Little Kilauea) hike from the Thurston lava tube parking area. The trail slopes downwards - which means our 2-hour walk will include an uphill trek. Of course, the hike starts with an argument over the best starting point - from Thurston or the crater lookout point, which is a 10-minute walk from the carpark. We even poll a guy who is exiting the crater. "Either way is good," he says. We trudge on. The picture above is taken near the end of the trail.
Through the trees of the lush Jurassic Park-like jungle, we catch glimpses of the grey barren bowl below. We see what look like tikis. But HB says they are people. The argument continues until one of the colourful tikis moves!
Down in the crater, tenacious plants fight to take root and start a jungle like the one that fringes the crater. Overhead, a snowy white bird soars. It starts to drizzle as we cross the crater and steam emanates from vents in the ground. We are just 2 miles above molten lava. We place our hands into one of the cracks - it is hot. We wish we have eggs on us. We spot the remnants of some campfires. Hmmmm... We decide to goof around instead of just walking and walking. It is a long walk.
The other end of the crater is more rubbly, so we conclude that it is better to start from where we did. As we climb back up to the rim, clouds move in. If we had started a minute later, we might not have enjoyed the fine views. It's another 2 miles back to the car from here.
For more adventures, look out for the next post...
1 comment:
My hair looks really messy! haha... It was very windy!!
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