This amazing and beautiful hike is 4 miles round trip, but goes by so fast, because every view is unbelievable. The trail starts out on the crater rim, and proceeds through old Hawaiian Rain Forest. Dense, tall, and green, a canopy of trees over our heads as we walk the soft path angling down the hill.
Our first view of the crater we will hike through - Kilauea Iki.
Still in the trees, we see others following the trail in front of us, headed out across the crater floor. Is this amazing or what?
An area where part of the crater wall has fallen away to expose the colored minerals in the lava. Look for a tiny, tiny white spot in the lower left of the red slide area. That is a regular size human. And they call this "small" (Iki) Kilauea.
The bubbly baked brownie crust up close.
One strong flower. The contrasts here are amazing.
Gee I hope this doesn't crack while we are walking over it.
Very eerie, and very beautiful walking across the floor of this SMALL crater. The steam vents are everywhere, and fill the air with a smell of sulfur, which as Mark Twin says, is "not unpleasant to a sinner".
And now, we return to our regular programming . . . investment banker takes call from client, even without his blackberry. The cheap phones work down here too.
The path through the inner caldera rim. More steam vents in the crater floor. Very smooth lava bed, with a few major bumps here and there. Reminds me of the asphalt of the city streets in Manhattan.
Looking at back at where we'd come from, once we reached the top of the other side of the crater.
No comments:
Post a Comment