Chain of Craters Road
From Volcano House to Holei Sea Arch, Chain of Craters Road will take you through some impressively desolate land. You will descend over 4,000 feet at the Kilauea Caldera down to the Pacific Ocean, a 20-mile drive.
The captions of the images in this gallery tell the story. Hover over each image, or click to open the full screen lightbox.
When you visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, you must drive down the Chain of Craters Road. This section is near the Kealakomo Overlook. We are looking up towards Mauna Ulu, a 3200ft (975m) cinder cone which erupted and formed these lava beds in 1969.
Kīlauea Volcano rises high above the Pacific Ocean on the south side of the Big Island of Hawaii. When it erupts, it pours molten lava out onto the mountainside. When the lava cools it forms a solid crust of rock. Here, looking west towards South Point, we see such a crust. Kilauea also obscures the view by belching a continuous cloud of VOG. VOG is formed from the sulfur laden gases of the volcano reacting with the oxygen in the air to form the dust cloud that streams up out of the volcano.
I am always in awe of the places where plants are able to sprout and grow. Given a few hundred thousand years, this may turn into a much bigger fern garden.
Don't pluck the red Lehua, if you wish for weather fair Tis Pele's sacred flower, which she guards with jealous care Her Akuas all are watching, and to her they will complain For surely as you do it, she sends down the rain
Don’t pluck the red Lehua, if you wish for weather fair
Tis Pele’s sacred flower, which she guards with jealous care
Her Akuas all are watching, and to her they will complain
For surely as you do it, she sends down the rain
As we were driving down the road, I spotted this Ohia Lehua tree growing out of the rock. There was no other life for a hundred yards around it because of the Lava and yet this tree has managed to put down roots and survive to reach a significant size.
I am always in awe of nature.
For more information about the Ohia Lehua, check out the Waimea Outdoor Circle website. There is a link to a PDF on this projects page which explains the legend around it.