When we arrived in Hilo, it was rainy and chilly. I didnt think that you would really need a sweater or coat in May in Hawaii, but it proved me wrong. 
Luckily i had a sweater with me. It was about 60 (maybe a little less) but with the humidity and breeze, it was pretty cold. So we started off the day renting a car. We drove down to Volcanoes National Park. Like almost all drives in Hawaii it was beautiful. As you get into the park you can see steam pockets all over the place. It is kind of scary to think that we were on top of an active volcano and that the steam we could feel and see was because of that volcano. We went to the museum they have there that over looks Kilauea. The view was cool, even though it was overcast and raining. You could see the volcanic gases being released through the vent. It was neat to see. Due to explosions and excessive volcanic gas you can no longer drive around the caldera or hike to the crater. So we were forced to be happy with a distant view. We did take a very pretty jungle hike down to the caldera. It was jungle on one side and old lava on the other. The pictures below are of Rob on the trail to the Caldera, then a picture of the vent gases at the bottom of the hike, and then us on the caldera. it was amazing.
Luckily i had a sweater with me. It was about 60 (maybe a little less) but with the humidity and breeze, it was pretty cold. So we started off the day renting a car. We drove down to Volcanoes National Park. Like almost all drives in Hawaii it was beautiful. As you get into the park you can see steam pockets all over the place. It is kind of scary to think that we were on top of an active volcano and that the steam we could feel and see was because of that volcano. We went to the museum they have there that over looks Kilauea. The view was cool, even though it was overcast and raining. You could see the volcanic gases being released through the vent. It was neat to see. Due to explosions and excessive volcanic gas you can no longer drive around the caldera or hike to the crater. So we were forced to be happy with a distant view. We did take a very pretty jungle hike down to the caldera. It was jungle on one side and old lava on the other. The pictures below are of Rob on the trail to the Caldera, then a picture of the vent gases at the bottom of the hike, and then us on the caldera. it was amazing.
After we hiked back to the car, we took the Chain of Craters Road down to its end. You can see in the pictures why the road ended. I believe the road used to go all the way around but now is in 2 separate parts. The sign that i am standing by says "Road Closed." I believe that we can all see why. We hiked around on the lava flows for a little while trying to get a peak at the active lava flow but it was to far for us to see unless we walked for a while. On our way back up we found this cool arch made of lava. It was scenic. We looked at a map to see how close we could get to the active lava flow and found the other part of this closed road and decided to see how far we could go...
And we got CLOSE!!! It was awesome!! We saw the steam flow all the way down the mountain. We took this road that was carved over lava flows out a little farther and you could walk pretty much to the active lava. It was kind of intimidating that you had to reverse park so you could get out faster if needed but we proceeded. We walked up the road a little more and came to a "viewing" area. This area was different all the time because the lava was pushing it back all the time. We were told all the lava we saw came in last night and covered a large section of the road. The man out there in the picture was monitoring the flow for the safety of the spectators. We saw a few trees catch on fire and it really wasnt that far from us. We saw many pockets of lava break through the thin surface and we were able to see red hot lava. It was amazing to be so close to such a force of nature.
After spending a long time watching lava bubble, and burn trees, and seeing the steam where it hit the ocean, we had to get back to the boat. As we were leaving the Active lava site we came across some prime real estate. Anyone interested in beach front property? As we were leaving Hilo on the boat Rob and I were deck side watching the city fade away. Right as I said I wish I could see a bunch of dolphins, one jumped out of the water followed by many more. There were a ton of them jumping, diving, spinning and playing. It was so cool. I have never seen that many dolphins before.
Well our boat took us to Kilauea to see it at night. Rob and I went to the front decks to get a good spot. As we were watching the Lava flows draw near, there was the most amazingly bright shooting star I have ever seen. It was bright green, blue, and white, just amazing colors, that flew for a long time in the sky just above the volcano. Words cant describe the majesty of the view. We could see Lava coming down the hill side. Unfortunately our camera couldnt capture
all that much of it but it was surreal. What an amazing sight. Hawaii has so many things to do and see. You could go there several times and not do the same thing twice. So this ended our day in Hilo. I will add more later...
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