Kilauea Caldera and Halem’uma’u Crater
We drove the approximately 100 miles from Kona to the national park today, arriving just before lunch. After eating our lunch on the lip of the Kiluea Crater, we walked around on a short trail by the steam vents, looking at the tropical rain forest plants. Some of the vents were very hot.
There was a fairly large cloud of steam and gases coming from the crater. We stopped at the Jaggar museum and then drove along the Chain of Craters road to the end where the lava flowed over the highway in 2003. You could see a large plume of steam in the distance where the lava is flowing into the ocean.
Eruption in distance, 2003 Lava flow
After walking across the old lava for a while we returned to Kona, eating supper at the one and only restaurant we found along the highway at the Shaka Restaurant, whose claim to fame is that it is the southernmost bar in the US. The food was reasonably priced and quite decent.