Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

When we first found out we were going to Hawaii, I e-mailed my aunt and let her know.  One of the reasons we were going there was to see them.  She asked what I wanted to do on her island, Hawai'i (the big island), and I told her I would love to climb around on a volcano.  She said, "Oh that is no problem, I live on a volcano and look at another." 

She wasn't kidding.  Her address is a PO Box at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park!!  Now how close can you live to the 'hot spot'?  Pretty darned close!  She lives on the volcano named Kilauea.  On the way to the volcano, (a 5 minute drive) we saw these steam vents:

She took us to the lava tube which I will blog about tomorrow, but when we got close to the crater, this is what we saw:

See the steam vents?  I know, you have to look beyond the sunset.  Oh darn!  :-)

At the crater:

It was one HUGE hole:

And had lots of lava:

After looking at all of the area in the daylight, we went back to her place, cooked supper, then hopped back in the car and drove 5 minutes to this:

Do you think it was HOT?
 

It kept belching heat and steam:
 

One of the things that surprised me about Hawaii, is all the lava.  Oh, I know, you hear that the Hawaiian Islands are a volcano chain, but until you see the lava, you really have no real grasp of that fact - at least I didn't.  When I think of Hawaii, I think of beautiful beaches and lots of sand.  Once I was there, I realized the sand is often volcanic sand (very coarse) and lots of lava, in some places so dense it is sparsely speckled with greenery.  It is a strange environment - not at all like the rocks and dirt I am used to in the states.  Mountains and streams of lava, new and old, make up the island of Hawaii. 

Would I live on a volcano?  Nope!  Not me, but it is beautiful.  I would be terribly afraid of being a crispy critter or worse yet, having a sink hole swallow me, my family and my house right up.  However, I must say, where she lives is beautiful - and very, very, very different.

Tomorrow we visit a lava tube!  :-)