Our first big hike was around half the upper rim and through the crater of Kilauea Iki. We hiked the four-mile loop and oohed and ahed all the way at how large an imprint Mother Nature can make when in a heated mood.
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| Kilauea Iki Crater |
It was easy to walk down into the 400 foot deep crater. Took a bit more effort to get out! The eruption of 1959 was massive, filling a caldera that used to be 800 feet down up to its present 400 foot depth.
We then drove the 17-mile Crater Rim Road down to the ocean, a 4,000 plus foot descent. There were spectacular scenes of massive lava fields and views of the ocean from on high to absorb all the way down. As you can see, it’s difficult to find many sandy beaches on the Big Island. They are few and far between!
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| Coastline at end of Crater Road |
The black sand beach of Punalu’u on our drive from Volcanoes Park to Kona was a fun stop. Sea turtles everywhere. You could dive into the ocean and swim with them, if you so desired.
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| Black sand beach |
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| Sea turtle |
There was the cutest little church perched on the bank of the ocean off of Ali’I Drive in Kailua-Kona. I couldn’t help but notice the scene of Jesus saving Peter from that “sinking feeling,” as etched out in this beautiful window design.
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| St. Peter’s Church window |
Thank you, Evan. I love the idea of the Christ lifting our “sinking thoughts”, with such love and compassion and tenderness! sas
Thank you for the pictures. I live on the Big Island, but am not a hiker, so these were views I had not seen. The green foliage surprised me, but then this has been a very wet year, moving from El Nino to El Nina, we had no dry season.