01.26.2018 - It was official! Blake had finished #1 in his entire division at Gilead and we were Big Island Hawaii bound.
So on Monday, April 23, 2018, we were all packed up and at 4AM in the morning, we headed to the San Antonio airport for what we knew would be one of the most amazing trips of our lifetime.
Day 1: Monday 4.23.2018
We had a 6:05 AM -American flight through LA with only a 40 min layover, which was perfect. We landed KOA at 11:30AM to gorgeous outdoor airport.
We picked up our Jeep and headed due east 2000 feet straight up from the coastline and stopped at the only hole-in-the-wall grocery store we could find. It was packed over lunch hour at 12:45 when we got there and had the most amazing fresh sushi!
The vegetation changes within 10-15 miles of driving from the airport to the east towards Hilo and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, was dramatic. We drove straight across the island between the 2 large volcanoes, Mauna Kea - 13,803 feet, which is the highest point in all of Hawaii and to our south- Mauna Loa - at 13,680 feet. We went from luscious forest to barren black lava molten and back and forth again. It rained pretty hard much of the 80 mile drive that tool us about 2 hour 20 min.
Cool facts we looked up while we were driving:
Hawaii is the most isolated group of islands, nearly 2300 miles from San Francisco - the nearest continent.
The Southern coast of Hawaii is the farthest southern part of North America!
There are only a few black sand beaches and Big Island even has a green sand beach!
The Big Island is a study in contrasts... we’ve seen that, just in our first 3 hours from landing in Kona and driving across the middle of the island to Hilo.
Kilauea’s current eruption has been active since 1983. We happened to be staying at the park the exact day that the lava lake at Kilauea’s summit over flowed, spilling onto the floor of the Halemaumau Crater.
There are 4 active volcanoes on island.
Mona Kea-errurpyed over 6,000 years ago. Glaciers cover the top. People can ski on it.
Moauna Loa is biggest volcano on Earth- erupted 33 times - most recent in 1984. It came within 4 miles of Hilo, which is the largest city in island.
Kīlauea - youngest and most active. Erupted continually since 1983. In 2008, a new vent opened - Halem’uma’u (which’s is the lava lake crater we saw at restaurant and from Jagger Museum.)
Kilauea has also been erupting from its summit, at a crater called Halemaumau, since 2008. At the end of April, lava spilled out from the lake, covering almost all of the crater's floor in the first sign that something may be changing in the volcano's plumbing.
Kilauea has technically been erupting since 1983, but has recently become much more active.
Huala’lai - 3rd most active- erupted 3 times I. 1,000 years. 1801 most recent and what is around the KOA airport.
We checked into hotel and went across street to visitor center and I was devastated when told that the ground lava flow had detoured in the last 2 weeks and could only be viewed from completely closed land.
So we went to Thurston Lava Tube just a 5 min drive from the Volcano House, instead, where the entrance was surrounded by a real rain forest. It was drizzling pretty well and chilly as we had expected in this part of the island. The tube entrance was stunning and it was so cool to see how this lava tube had been made just 50 years ago.
Then then headed to the famous Jagger Museum, the best outlook to see the Kilauea Caldera. It was remarkable time to see the Halema’uma’u Crater and the lake of molten. For the first time in 3 years, that same morning, the lava had crested and spilled over the edges. As we were standing at the Jagger Museum outlook, you could see the bubbles throwing up in the air, I’m sure hundreds of feet. It really was an amazing historical moment to witness and be reminded how earth is constantly being added to with these active volcanoes.
We went back to the hotel for our 7:15 dinner reservation at the famous restaurant where you dine overlooking the red hot lava in the background. The fish and service were wonderful and although it was very foggy, there were times you could see the bright red molten through the dense fog.
MAJOR UPDATE ONCE WE RETURNED:
On Thursday afternoon 5/3/2018 , just 3 days after we got back to San Antonio, the leading story across the nation was Kīlauea had erupted! There had been hundreds of small earthquakes Monday and Tuesday with a big 4.9 earthquake on Thursday and a 6.9 earthquake on the following day, Friday- the strongest in 40 years!
Much of Kilauea's recent activity has been taking place at a vent on the side of the cone, called Pu'u 'ÅŒ'Å. That vent experienced a major collapse on April 30, 2018 accompanied by a series of earthquakes, which made scientists expect further developments at the site. In Late June 2018, 2 months later, it was still extremely active and erupting even more.
No comments:
Post a Comment