This is the little place that Robby and I stayed in while we were on the Big Island. It is inside the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and is at the side of one of the biggest craters on Kilauea. Kilauea is the world's largest active volcano. This particular crater is where the natives believe that Pele, the goddess of the volcano, lives. They believe that she created the island for her people and that she has the power to erupt the volcano at any time. The island is full of stories of gods and goddesses, they are all very beautiful stories and very interesting. 
This is the entrace to the Thurston Lava tube. When a volcano erupts the lava on the top quickly cools, leaving tubes for the lava to flow through. Inside these tubes the lava only loses 20 degrees!! The tubes where huge! Robby and I hiked through this tube, is was the length of 2 football fields and had NO light source!!! It was crazy, we turned off our flashlights at the end and it was the darkest I have ever seen (or not seen....)! The picture below is Robby crouching at the end of the tunnel! Come to think of it, I'm not really sure how we knew it wouldn't collapse, we were the only people in there...hmmmm.... The black around Robby is nothing but hard lava!
This is a Pu'u Loa petroglyph, the natives drew thousands of these in the lava after an eruption to please Pele.
This is Robby and I about to take off on our 8 mile hike out to the active, flowing lava! Kilauea started to erupt in 2003 and is continuing to erupt down this side of the mountain. You can "hike at your own risk" out to the flowing lava. The way you do it, is to leave before dark and hike out across all of the hardened lava, then when it gets dark you are surrounded by the red lava and you can see it flowing into the ocean! Robby and I's shoes are ruined from the lava! But when we got to the end we ate a picnic dinner and watched the sunset. Guys, we saw real lava! It was breath-taking and wonderful! I was terrified, but would do it again in a heart beat. We tried to take pictures, but it was too dark for our camera! We could feel the heat beneath the hardened lava that we were walking on and you could see the lava flowing down the mountain and blowing up in the ocean creating huge blasts of steam and methane! We must have been walking over the lava tubes!
This is a picutre of the hardened lava we were walking over. I can't explain to you how massive this eruption was. The little white specks in the picture are people walking ahead of us. This hard, black lava covered miles, and miles of land before it flowed into the sea. It destroys everything in its path. The people here have learned to accept it, they rebuild and rebuild on the same spots. It's just a way of life. The volcanoes don't erupt like they do in the movies. It is a slow process and most people here rush to see the hot lava flowing, rather than run away screaming!!
This is Rob right before we walked acrosse the Kilauea Ike ("little Kilauea") crater. There were steam vents every where and you could feel the heat beneath you. This particular crater erupted in the 50's and is now just a think lake of hard lava, so it is safe to walk across.
The eruption destroyed miles of rain forrest and the edge of the rain forrest just abruptly stops right here.
A steam vent on the floor of the Kilauea Ike crater
This is an offering for Pele. The people left these all over the edge of the active crater, to please Pele in hopes that she would spare their land and homes from the flowing lava. They were everywhere and we were not to touch them. The park did its best to uphold the ways of the natives and to keep the volcano sacred.
This is a picture from the top of the mountain of the lava flowing into the ocean. It shows black during the day, but at night parts of it glow red!
This is a lehua blossom, legend says that there was a great man named Oahu that Pele was in love with, but he loved another woman named Lehua. When Pele told him of her love he respectfully turned her down and told her of his love for Lehua. Pele became enraged and turned him into a tree. The other gods were angry with Pele and tried to reverse the spell, but were unable to do so. The only way they could sooth Lehua's broken heart and reunite the lovers was to turn her into this beautiful blossom and place her on the tree. These plants only grow on the volcano and it is disrespectful to pick the flowers from the tree. The natives say that if a flower is picked from the tree, the sky will open up and rain Lehua's tears. Just a little story I liked.
This is the entrace to the Thurston Lava tube. When a volcano erupts the lava on the top quickly cools, leaving tubes for the lava to flow through. Inside these tubes the lava only loses 20 degrees!! The tubes where huge! Robby and I hiked through this tube, is was the length of 2 football fields and had NO light source!!! It was crazy, we turned off our flashlights at the end and it was the darkest I have ever seen (or not seen....)! The picture below is Robby crouching at the end of the tunnel! Come to think of it, I'm not really sure how we knew it wouldn't collapse, we were the only people in there...hmmmm.... The black around Robby is nothing but hard lava!
This is a Pu'u Loa petroglyph, the natives drew thousands of these in the lava after an eruption to please Pele.
This is Robby and I about to take off on our 8 mile hike out to the active, flowing lava! Kilauea started to erupt in 2003 and is continuing to erupt down this side of the mountain. You can "hike at your own risk" out to the flowing lava. The way you do it, is to leave before dark and hike out across all of the hardened lava, then when it gets dark you are surrounded by the red lava and you can see it flowing into the ocean! Robby and I's shoes are ruined from the lava! But when we got to the end we ate a picnic dinner and watched the sunset. Guys, we saw real lava! It was breath-taking and wonderful! I was terrified, but would do it again in a heart beat. We tried to take pictures, but it was too dark for our camera! We could feel the heat beneath the hardened lava that we were walking on and you could see the lava flowing down the mountain and blowing up in the ocean creating huge blasts of steam and methane! We must have been walking over the lava tubes!
This is a picutre of the hardened lava we were walking over. I can't explain to you how massive this eruption was. The little white specks in the picture are people walking ahead of us. This hard, black lava covered miles, and miles of land before it flowed into the sea. It destroys everything in its path. The people here have learned to accept it, they rebuild and rebuild on the same spots. It's just a way of life. The volcanoes don't erupt like they do in the movies. It is a slow process and most people here rush to see the hot lava flowing, rather than run away screaming!!
This is Rob right before we walked acrosse the Kilauea Ike ("little Kilauea") crater. There were steam vents every where and you could feel the heat beneath you. This particular crater erupted in the 50's and is now just a think lake of hard lava, so it is safe to walk across.
The eruption destroyed miles of rain forrest and the edge of the rain forrest just abruptly stops right here.
A steam vent on the floor of the Kilauea Ike crater
This is an offering for Pele. The people left these all over the edge of the active crater, to please Pele in hopes that she would spare their land and homes from the flowing lava. They were everywhere and we were not to touch them. The park did its best to uphold the ways of the natives and to keep the volcano sacred.
This is a picture from the top of the mountain of the lava flowing into the ocean. It shows black during the day, but at night parts of it glow red!
This is a lehua blossom, legend says that there was a great man named Oahu that Pele was in love with, but he loved another woman named Lehua. When Pele told him of her love he respectfully turned her down and told her of his love for Lehua. Pele became enraged and turned him into a tree. The other gods were angry with Pele and tried to reverse the spell, but were unable to do so. The only way they could sooth Lehua's broken heart and reunite the lovers was to turn her into this beautiful blossom and place her on the tree. These plants only grow on the volcano and it is disrespectful to pick the flowers from the tree. The natives say that if a flower is picked from the tree, the sky will open up and rain Lehua's tears. Just a little story I liked.
