We started our day on Hawaii Route 200. It is the main road across the big island. It is also the road to Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Our first destination was Mauna Kea. You can see both volcanoes from very far away. The area around Mauna Kea looks like a desert. Lots of browns and reds with a little bit of green. The only signs of life are the many pieces of research equipment. Today, there were not many cars to be seen.
We only got to drive about two thirds of the way up Mauna Kea. The rangers station is at 9,200 feet. The top of the volcano is 13,200 feet. We were not allowed to drive beyond that point because we did not have 4 wheel drive. So we spent some time talking to a few people and to the ranger manning the checkpoint for travel to the top of the mountain.
Mauna Loa is directly across the highway from Mauna Kea. However, it appears to be a different planet. There is virtually no vegetation on the volcano. It is rocks and lava as far as you can see in any direction. There is a 17 mile one lane road that leads to the observatory at 11,000 feet. We drove the entire road. We saw one car on the way up and one car on the way down. (Side note: 10 days later, Mauna Loa erupted and molten lava crossed this road we had just traveled)
You can see from the pictures that the road is far from smooth and straight. These four pictures pretty much describe the entire drive up Mauna Loa.
At the top, we saw the elevation marked on the road. We also saw even more lava. The observation area is off limits to visitors. There is a six mile trail from the end of the road to the top of the mountain. The elevation at the top is 13,679 feet. We saw in many places that this volcano covers 50% of the big island. The island pretty much just plunges directly into the ocean to a depth of about 18,000 feet. That makes the total height of Mauna Loa almost 32,000 feet. Part of our travels tomorrow will also be on the part of Mauna Loa that goes to the south of the island. On the next day, we will be on the west side of the island and still be on Mauna Loa for part of our travels that day. Mauna Loa is really big.
The last picture on Mauna Loa is a selfie that has Mauna Kea in the background. Our round trip up and down Mauna Loa was almost two hours.
After our tour of the two big volcanoes, we drove to Rainbow Falls. On our way to Rainbow Falls, we saw a sign for Boiling Pots. We drove down hill a few miles from that sign to Rainbow Falls. We enjoyed our stop at Rainbow Falls.
As we were leaving Rainbow Falls, we saw a display that explained that Rainbow Falls is the lower part of a series of waterfalls called Boiling Pots. It is called this because the waterfalls stir up the water so much it looks like it is boiling. The hard falling water creates pots at the bottom of the falls. Hence the name.
We decided to drive back up the mountain to see the rest of the waterfalls. There were a lot of them. They lived up to their name.
Our next destination was the Kapoho Tidal Pools. We were about four years too late. In 2018, an eruption from Kilauea crossed the road. There is a sign at the turn in the road that basically says, You’re too late. The pools are under a lava bed now. We wondered why the lava was so deep along the road. Now we know.
Our next stop was the Kehena Black Sand Beach. It is a short but still challenging hike to get to the beach. The first picture shows how steep the climb down (and back up) really is. The second and third pictures show that much of the coast line here is very rocky. The final picture shows that we did not quite get to the beach.
Based on some conversations we had with others while hiking toward Kahena Black Sand Beach, we were suspicious that it was a clothing optional beach. When we made the final turn to where you could see the beach, those suspicions were confirmed. We quickly took a strategically framed photo that focused on the black sand, then turned around and hiked back to our car.
Because we could not drive to the top of Mauna Kea, and the Tidal Pools were no more, and we did not get to stay at the Black Sand Beach, we got to our hotel a little bit early. We went to search for food. The few local restaurants were closed or closing. The only restaurant available was at Volcanoes National Park. So that is where we went for dinner. We got to see Kilauea before dark. During dinner, we were told we should stay after dark to see the glow of the volcano.
So we did. An hour after our first view of Kilauea, we got to see a whole new world of lights and colors and smoke. This was where we learned how good our phone cameras did with low light photography. We could barely see the red glow with our eyes. But the cameras caught it all. The darkness and the red glow gave the evening an eerie feel.
We saw flowers and fruit all day long. It began at our hotel’s garden in the morning. And it continued all day long, with the exception of Mauna Loa. Someone at Rainbow Falls had spent many years trimming a tree to get it to look like a windmill.
We missed some things that we had hoped to see, but the nighttime view of Kilauea more than made up for what we missed.