We got up a little later than usual — Jer got up first and let Jess sleep until 7 am, then he packed while she got ready. We checked out a bit before 8 am. Since the Manago Hotel Restaurant is closed on Mondays, we drove 1.5 miles to the Coffee Shack. There, we had fabulous breakfasts — for Jer, a veggie omelet and Greek Isle toast (made with olives, cucumber and herbs); for Jess, scrambled eggs and Luau toast (made with mac nuts, pineapple, coconut and carrots) — sitting on a lanai overlooking the coast down below. We also got one of their famous cinnamon rolls to go. Thus fortified, we headed south toward the bottom of the Big Island.
Route 11 is very twisty, so we took our time. We stopped briefly in Manuka State Park to use the facilities and to give Jess a chance to take in the views. We got to see cool volcanic rocks studded with olivine, a semi-precious stone formed inside the volcano. (Sadly, we didn’t have time to go to the green sand beach, made entirely from olivine.) We did get to stop at the black sand beach at Punaluu, where we were lucky enough to see two resting sea turtles. We stayed a respectful distance so as not to stress them, but it was cool to see them lounging on the beach. Jess was super excited!
From Punaluu, we continued to Volcanoes National Park. Once we paid our $10 for a weekly entry pass, our first stop was the Visitor’s Center for postcards and information on the best sights to see in an afternoon. Just a little farther down the road were steam vents, where rainwater is heated to boiling and emerges as steam from cracks in the ground. Then we stopped to see a huge steam plume emerging from a crater. We continued on to Kiluea Iki, a huge lava basin that erupted in 1959 and is now solid (but apparently still warm); the plume was still visible.
A bit farther along was Thurston Lava Tube, a 550-year old natural conduit through which molten lava once flowed. The entrance is in a forest of giant ferns, which feels like something out of Jurassic Park. After the 300-yard long lit section of the tube, we headed into a 1,000-yard long unlit section. Because we’d brought good flashlights, we attracted a less prepared group (which included one lady who didn’t like the dark and stayed close to Jess’s Surefire). We didn’t make it to the end, as it was too damp for Jess’s taste.
We decided to head down Chain of Craters Road, a 19-mile road that leads from the top of the park (around 3500 ft.) to the coast (around sea level); we’ve discovered that people on the Big Island are obsessed with signposting elevations. We stopped at one of several pit craters, and we also got out and walked along Devastation Trail for a bit. (Jess liked the volcanic rocks embedded in the trees; Jer liked the pair of wild pheasants we saw hopping around in the underbrush, eating berries). Eventually, we continued down the winding road. We stopped at an overlook where we could see the coast below, as well as lava fields of various ages (newer ones are darker). At the end of the road, we clambered over a new lava field to see the Holei Sea Arch, a massive stone archway worn into the rock by the crashing surf. (The road used to continue along the coast, but a lava flow in the 1980s put a stop to that!) Beyond the end of the road, we could see plumes of steam from the two sites where lava was flowing from underground tubes into the ocean.
We drove back up Chain of Craters Road, stopping to look at the 1980s lava flow briefly. The volcanic gases is the area create vog (like smog, only volcanic), and we didn’t want to expose ourselves unnecessarily. We drove all the way back to the Jaggar Museum, a small but interesting geological museum atop Kilauea that has a great view over Halema`uma`u, the crater which is said to be the home of the volcano goddess, Pele (there’s a webcam). We admired the great plume of steam for a bit, before deciding we should make our way to our B&B in Pahoa, on the Hilo side of the island.
The Hilo side of the Big Island is the wet side, getting more than 200 inches per year. Not surprisingly, then, we hit a rain storm almost immediately after we left the park, and it was with us for the whole drive to Pahoa. We made it to our B&B, Hale Makemae, and our lovely hosts, Petra and John, were there to greet us and show us around. They were working on the studio we’d reserved, so they upgraded us to the Garden Suite, which was lovely. They gave us directions to the boat ramp for the morning, and recommendations for restaurants for dinner.
After we dropped off our bags in our suite, we headed to Kaleo’s, the closest of the restaurants that Petra recommended. It was mostly American food, though there were a few Hawaiian dishes too. Jer had a Black & Blue Burger - a volcano-spiced burger with bacon or blue cheese; Jess had their delicious fish chowder and lilikoi (passionfruit) cheesecake. Since we had to get up super early the next morning, we headed straight back to the B&B and went to bed.