3/1 Volcano National Park

What a full day. We woke to blue skies so quickly had breakfast so we could get to the park as early as possible. The park is 28 miles away from Hilo – we were going away from the city so we had no traffic at all – everyone was coming in to Hilo. When we got to the park, the ranger suggested we go to Thurston Lava Tube first as it tends to get crowded later in the day. She was right – there was only one other couple there. Later in the day, we came by again and the parking lot was full of cars and tour buses! The lava tube was cool to walk through (see photo). It is made by lava flowing and then cooling from the outside/in forming a crust. The lava inside keeps flowing until the tube is empty. We were able to walk through for about 1000 feet – it was pretty cool. We then went to the Visitor Center and picked up some hike maps. From there we went up to the museum to see the active crater spewing sulphuric gases. On the way out we stopped to take some photos of the many steam vents that are along the road. We then went as far as we could on the Crater Rim road. In 1995 lava spilled over the roadway and the road dead-ends now (see photos). We decided to go for dinner so went to nearby Volcano, which is a tourist town, but their only restaurant didn’t open until 5:30, so we decided to go down the road away from Hilo (28 miles away and raining) toward the south. We stopped several places, but couldn’t find a restaurant until we were 24 miles away! We could have driven back to Hilo! It was one of the best hamburgers we have ever had though – homemade bun and all. We drove back to the park and up to the museum to see the volcano at night – as you can see from the picture, it was worth it. At both times that we were at the museum, they experienced a small earthquake – we didn’t feel either one. The 11:30 AM one caused more dark smoke to rise with the gases and we could hear the rumbling as rocks fell in – it was a 2.6 earthquake. At 7:05 PM there was a 1.3 which we couldn’t hear, but the glow did get brighter and the gases rose higher. We got back to Hilo tired, but feeling that we had a full day. Tomorrow we will go hiking in the park.