For the longest time, our idea of Hawaii was beaches, pristine green colored beaches. But we were taken by surprise (pleasantly), when we learnt about the active volcanoes.
So after a ton of planning, we went to the infamous Volcanoes national park during thanksgiving holidays this year.
This was our first glimpse of “Halema’uma’u crater” from Jagger museum. Do make a point to visit this overlook either before sunrise or just after sunset. We went an hour before sunrise and we could clearly see the glow from the volcano. One thing to remember is that its much more crowded at sunset than early in the morning. So even though it was colder and windier in the morning, we almost got the whole place to ourselves.
Our next mission was to see lava flowing from up close. We booked a tour with Kalapana cultural tours and they were the best as many reviews had suggested. Our hike started early at 5am in complete darkness on lava fields.
As the sun started rising, the landscape started getting clearer to our eyes.
Then after a good 3 mile hike we saw hot, flowing lava.
And even more lava.
We could feel the heat from that close. Our tour guide told us many horrifying stories of people who were reckless and ended up getting injured. So, I would request everyone to be extremely careful.
Our unpredictable and beautiful mother nature presented itself in the form of a double rainbow on our return hike.
Special thanks to our very informative and funny tour guide “Herbert” for making this a tour to cherish.
Nowhere in Particular 