September 14 - Back to HVNP

We decided to sample some of the local Pahoa cuisine. Pahoa has a small area where there is a strip of restaurants and markets. We ate breakfast at the Black Rock Cafe. The eggs were good and the price was right.

We went to Rainbow Falls in Hilo. The walk from the parking lot to the falls is short and easily accessed.

We also returned to HVNP. We hiked the Kilauea Iki Trail. This moderate 4-mile trail takes you down to the steaming crater floor. This is a great hike to view the crater from above and within.

It's amazing that in this vast volcano wasteland there are signs of life. The vegetation is so hardy and adaptable that it grows back in the lava.

We also walked through the Thurston Lava Tubes, which are lava caves. You access the Tubes via a paved path. There is a fenced-off section of the Tubes that can be traveled if you have a flashlight, because it gets pitch black very quickly. We didn't have a flashlight, so we couldn't do it. Next time!

We drove to the end of Chain of Craters Road, which is where the lava flow closed the road that linked the east and west sides of HVNP. It's a one-half mile hike from the parking lot to the beginning of the lava. The many solidified lava patterns are interesting.

At the parking lot lookout, you can see the sea arch. This is a very picturesque spot.

As we headed back up Chain of Craters Road, we stopped to see the Pu'uloa Petroglyphs. This archaelogical site contains thousands of images carved into the lava. The images are accessed via a less than one mile trail which leads to boardwalk encircling the petroglyphs. Noticeable were hundreds of circles carved in the lava. These pukas (holes) were dug for pikos (umbilical cords). The Hawaiians believed that burying the babies' umbilical cords ensured long lives.

We also walked the Devastation Trail. This is a short hike through the cinder fall from Kilauea Iki's 1959 eruption. While there's not much to see, that's the point. Oddly, there are several signs positioned off the trail at an unreadable distance. We learned that these signs say no hiking allowed. Therefore, if you get close enough to read them, you're where you're not supposed to be.

On the way back to Pahoa, we stopped at J&J Diner for Filipino food. While we didn't know what the various dishes were, the woman working there was happy to let us sample the food and answer our questions. Ono! It is located on Keauu-Pahoa Road, which links Highway 11 and Route 130.