Well, we got off to an early start today, and were out of the hotel
\nabout 8:30am and headed south for the Volcano Park. It is a long ride
\naround the west and south side of the island to the park, but there were
\nsome fantastic views and interesting terrain to see.<\/p>\n
Other than soda and bathroom stops, we only made one stop on the way to
\nthe Volcano Park, and that was at the Black Sands Beach. We were not
\nreally impressed, either. I thought it looked like someone just dumped
\na few truckloads of finely crushed grey granite on the beach. I guess I
\nwas expecting to see a much larger area of fine dark black fine sand,
\nand that just was not the case…<\/p>\n
After that we moved on to Volcano Park, and I was somewhat disappointed
\nthere as well. We arrived about noon and found out that any of the
\ncurrently active lava flows were at least a four hour round trip walk.
\nNothing was accessible by car, even down at the end of the Chain of
\nCraters road by the seashore. Given my current muscle conditions, it
\nwas out of the question to even try.<\/p>\n
We did make the hike to the Thurston Lava Tube, and that was about all
\nmy legs could take for the day. It is about a half mile walk, and has a
\n100 foot climb after leaving the tube, just about killed my legs for the
\nrest of the day.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, we stopped at all the other points on the crater rim drive
\nfirst, so we saw everything along the main circle, at least. We decided
\nto not take the drive down to the ocean, since we would not see any
\nactive lava sites, so we headed out for Hilo.<\/p>\n
We stopped at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory Store after a quick
\nbite for lunch about 3pm. We picked up some snacks at the store and
\nheaded for the waterfalls around Hilo. We saw Rainbow Falls, Peepee
\nFalls and Boiling Pots and then headed north for the hotel.<\/p>\n
Shortly after leaving Hilo, we saw a sign on the road for the “Scenic
\nRoute”, so we took it. It is a 4 mile long, narrow, curvy and hilly
\nroad along the coastline through tropical rain forests and across some
\nof the nicest small streams with cascading rapids and small waterfalls.
\nMarianne took many pictures to be posted at a later date when we have
\nhigh speed access again…<\/p>\n
After the scenic tour, we got back on the Hawai’i Loop Highway and
\nheaded back to the hotel. We got back about 2 hours later, around 7:30
\nand stopped at the King’s Shops for a quick dinner at Subway, as we both
\nare rather tired, and did not feel like a big dinner….<\/p>\n
Last night I worked on some of the previous day’s pictures, but don’t
\nthink I will get them posted until we return home because we don’t have
\nhigh speed access until that time….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, we got off to an early start today, and were out of the hotel about 8:30am and headed south for the Volcano Park. It is a long ride around the west and south side of the island to the … Continue reading