Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

My new favorite highway sign

One of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Big Island was to see volcanoes.  Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world, and for the past few months has been having intermittent eruptions.  We were hoping the timing would work out for our visit and that we would see one.  Spoiler alert -- we did not.  Nevertheless, it was a fantastic visit.

View from Devastation Point

We drove along the rim of the calderra and stopped at various lookouts over the landscape. Even though there was no eruption, we saw steam vents throughout the park giving us a gentle reminder of what was boiling beneath the surface. Our best view was at the aptly named Devastation Point, where we walked about a mile from the parking area to a lookout directly across from the active steam vents in the calderra.  

The most scenic drive in the park is called the Chain of Craters road, a 19-mile road that takes you from the calderra all the way to the ocean.  We drove through lush tropical forest near the top of the drive as well as through lava fields that looked as though we were driving on the moon.

Not far from the ocean was an area with thousands of petroglyphs carved into the lava rock.  We had to hike about 1.5 miles round trip across a lava field in order to see them. Ancient Hawaiian culture did not have a written language, so these petroglyphs provide a glimpse into the lives of this ancient culture.  We recognized human forms and animals such as the sea turtle, while others were more abstract.  The National Park Service has mapped over 23,000 of these rock carvings in this area.

We met a Bulgarian couple who had been camping along the coast for a week.  They were in search of a ride back up to the calderra and had been waiting for over three hours without any luck when we met them. After hiking to the petroglyphs, they were still in search of a ride so they hopped in the car with us.  We drove down to the ocean to see a sea arch that was still standing before driving them back to the campground where they were spending the night next to the calderra.  They are ski instructors in Switzerland who spend their summers traveling to various locales across the world. Even though we only spent about an hour with them, conversation flowed easily.  It was a nice reminder that we have much more in common with others around the world than we do differences.

Sea Arch