On Friday, Tom and I had plans to hike the Waipi’o Valley. We intended to forge the river and hike up the far side and so packed lunch, plenty of water, and set out for our adventure.

When we arrived, it was gloomy but not raining, so we hiked down the mile long 25% grade (that’s reeeealy steep) road taking it at a snail’s pace.

This is from the bottom once we got down.

Once at the bottom we found the valley as beautiful as before but rain soaked and very muddy due to an inordinate amount of rain.  

That rainfall also contributed to the rain swelled and rapidly flowing river that we had planned to forge. After several tentative attempts, we gave up and decided to hike the side of the valley we were on.

There are a surprising number of homes in the valley and we walked along the gravel road that followed the river getting a glimpse of valley life.  

   After about a mile and a half of slogging along the muddy road, I took the wrong way around a puddle and was ankle deep in mud. That’s when I declared that I’d had enough of mud hiking and we headed back.

 Just after we started back, it began to rain in earnest – Wow! Are we having fun or what?   We took shelter under a very large tree and sat on the roots to wait for the worst of the rain  to abate, and as we sat there a small band (5) of wild horses that were on the road decided to check us out. They seemed friendly enough but very curious  so we discussed the situation with them while it rained.  After a bit, a local in a jeep came by and stopped to let the horses move. One horse had different ideas and sauntered up to the front of her car and just stood there looking in through the front window –  very  funny.

 The girl finally got out and shooed him away, and then drove on – an amusing scene as we waited.

After a bit we decided to haul out the ponchos and keep going because the rain wasn’t letting up. We had almost made it back to the base of the hill when another local that was going our way, stopped and offered us a ride to the top. We debated for about 2 seconds before thanking him profusely and crawling in his jeep.

On the way home we stopped at a couple of other parks where it wasn’t raining.  At the first, Kalopa State Park, we took a short hike through a pretty dense and very tall forest.  It was quiet, peaceful and lovely.  

The last stop of the day was at Kolekole Beach Park

which sits beneath a very tall highway bridge.   

It was a pretty little park with a river and beautiful waterfalls,   and rainbows. A lovely ending to the day.

Tom and I spent a quiet day recuperating from our lava hike yesterday. In the afternoon we  went snorkeling at a place called the Champaign Ponds in Kapoho.

In 1960 a volcano shot tons of lava 1700 ft. into the air covering the town of Kapoho under acres of ‘A’a lava

leaving only 2 small subdivisions intact.

Champaign Ponds is one of those subdivisions and it is surrounded by huge ‘a’a fields.

The neighborhood is built around geothermal ponds with inlets to the ocean.

There is public access and we went snorkeling there. It’s like snorkeling in bathwater – lovely.

I got an underwater camera for my birthday. Though the fish move rather quickly, I was able to get a few good shots as I snorkeled.

   

It was a quiet but nice way to spend Tom’s birthday.

Happy Birthday, Love of My Life.

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Today we did it! Tom really wanted to make it to the lava flow and today we did, but it about killed us. We started out at Kehena Black Sand Beach at 9:30 AM supplied with plenty of water, lunch and of course cameras. We had done part of the trail before and knew that it was going to be hard, but we were determined.
The hike weather was warm, but not too hot and we had a good tail wind to push us along so we made pretty good time going. The trail is well marked in the beginning, but the markers become fewer and farther between as you go. After a while we didn’t see any at all so had to make our own way with a bit of backtracking along the way. The trail is along the coast, however, so you can’t really get lost. Plus you can see the steam cloud which acts as a beacon as well as encouragement.

Hiking over lava fields can be treacherous but if you take time to look, they can also be magnificent. We were on a mission, so I didn’t have a great deal of time to take pictures. Nevertheless, I managed to get a few. These are some of the better ones:

This is ‘A’a lava – it cools more quickly and therefore is more brittle – very rough and chunky

These are  pictures of Pahoehoe lava. It cools more slowly and is much smoother. Luckily this is what we hiked over most of the time. I find it’s forms fascinating and beautiful.

 

This one I thought was spectacular! It is about a 10 ft high wall of lava and was awesome!

We took a short break at this small black sand beach.

Then we started out again – we’re getting closer.

 These are views along the trail.

          

The view was spectacular and well worth the trip.

 

After taking in the vision of new land being created and taking lots of pictures of it.

We headed back. Remember the tail wind I talked about at the beginning of the hike? Well, the wind had picked up and was now a headwind. Just let me say that it was a lot longer and harder hike going back. We stopped in a small and pretty wooded area for lunch and then pressed on.

We arrived back at the car at 3:20 (right at 6 hours). Figuring mileage later, Tom figured that it was about 12 miles a pretty extraordinary feat for people our age and another check on the “Been There, Done That” list.

Today we did a morning hike again in Volcanoes National Park. This one was a bit more aggressive and took about four hours…whew! It was an interesting hike and, as usual, the sights were beautiful!

 

There were steam vents everywhere.

We ended the hike going through the sulfur fields – a bit smelly, but filled with steam vents and striking colors. The sulfur comes up with the steam through the vents and is deposited on the rocks. It paints a vibrant picture.

We grabbed lunch in the tiny town of Volcano and then headed for the Punaluu Black Sand Beach 

to spend the afternoon wading in the tidepools,

watching the sea turtles

   

and communing with nature.

 

After barbequing dinner at the beach,

 we headed back to Volcanoes National Park for a night look at the lava flow from the observation area at the Jagger Museum.  There were about a million stars and the red glowing lava in the distance made it a pretty spectacular sight. A great end to another great day.