So 2012 began with a brilliantly pre-planned/ordered room service breakfast at 6 am. Eggs Benedict and Hawaiian Sweet Bread French Toast. Why so much food information, you ask? Who cares, you say? Because I'm a fat kid and I know one or two of you are fat kids too and will appreciate the fat kid details.
After, Matt and I claimed a cabana:
and read/slept for a couple hours. All too soon, we packed up, checked out, and started our drive along the North side of the island to Hilo. It took about two hours and, in that two hours, the landscape changed like nothing I'd ever seen before:
 |
| Brush/Lava Desert near the resort |
 |
| 15 minutes later... |
 |
| After another 10 minutes, it was like someone started coloring the landscape with a green crayon. |
 |
| Crazy |
 |
| From flat expanses to rolling hills... |
 |
| Mountain |
 |
| Observatory |
 |
| Beautiful! |
 |
| A little while later, we started passing cattle farms and cacti. |
 |
| Then, without warning, we drove into thick mists. |
 |
| Cows in the mist... |
 |
| Mists to Forest |
 |
| After the mists and dense trees, Matt and I saw this and couldn't figure out if we were looking at sky or ocean. |
 |
| It was ocean. |
We got to our hotel around 2 and decided to head straight out to the Volcanoes National Park. We did some research online and read that it would be about a 5 mile hike out to the active lava. Ok. No big deal. Matt and I are pretty active, I mean we just did that epic work out a couple weeks ago. We also read that the best viewing time is at sunset so that you can see the lava in better detail. Done. The site suggested we wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and gloves for protection. Nope. Finally, it suggested that we bring a lot of water, snacks, flashlights with extra batteries, and walking sticks.
Our hotel was amazing because they provided us with driving directions to a convenience store, the volcanoes park, a bag of flashlights with extra batteries (WOO!) and walking sticks. Matt and I were really grateful for all the help, a little wary of the actual usefulness of the walking sticks, but ready to roll. We picked up two big water bottles, some snacks, and hit the road.
 |
| Quick overview, ready for some details? |
Along the drive down Chain of Craters Road, we drove through a series of open barriers that could be closed in case of lava. The dried flows were expansive and labeled with the month and year they occurred. The devastation was overwhelming! Dense forest was completely eliminated. The landscape soon changed from forest and random flows to reveal this:
 |
| Vast, steep cliffs leading to the ocean. |
 |
| Stopped to take some killer pictures... |
 |
| Am I doing Aerobics? I don't know, but I'm rocking my Humpy's shirt. |
 |
| At the bottom of the cliffs, looking up at how the lava flowed down the cliff side. |
 |
| Our adventure begins! |
 |
| Gotcha. Avoid the hazardous plume. |
 |
| At this point, Matt and I are laughing at the fact that we're carrying walking sticks. We were hitting each other with them more than we were actually using them. |
 |
| Enjoying the landscape, totally oblivious of what's to come. |
 |
| And then the road turns to lava. |
 |
| Where the fun began. |
After 1/2 mi walk, we came to the following sign. This marked the beginning of our hardcore hike out to active site. Also after that initial 1/2 mi walk, Matt and I became aware of several things:
1. We would be hiking up and down lava mountains rather than smooth, fairly even flows.
2. These mountains would be very unstable, with chipping, crumbling parts and steep, sharp rocks.
3. When the website (mentioned previously) said that lava was as sharp as glass, it wasn't kidding. We had to be very careful not to fall. Take a moment to think about that fact plus my general record of balance and coordination. Yeah. Daunting.
4. It was really hot.
5. We didn't bring enough water.
At this point, Matt became aware of something too:
6. He already had some horrible blisters on his heels. Not good.
Note: Matt did not share #6 with me until we had completed a third of our hike.
Despite these realizations, we were still pretty optimistic.
 |
| Oh is that all? |
 |
| To put things in perspective, this is what we hiked, except that there were less people and landmarks. Just Lava Mountains. |
We continued to walk
and walk
and walk
and almost fall but not quite
and walk, and when we got to beacon 5, we met two guys who were much more enthusiastic than the previous couple. Matt and I were also enthusiastic because we were at beacon 5!! YEAH! Except, our enthusiasm waned when the guys said we were halfway there. What? Only halfway? We've been walking and stumbling for a lifetime, Matt's poor feet are about to fall off, we are sweating like crazy, our water is almost gone, and we're only HALFWAY?!?!
Deep breath. Ok.
To be fair, the guys were the most pleasant terrible-news-bringers and also provided us with further directions. What happened next went exactly as they described. We reached the 7th beacon and then continued walking for about a mile. The cool ocean breeze started turning warm and then warmer. The ground we were walking on started radiating heat. It got hot, then it got hotter and knew we were close. When we started seeing heat waves rising from vents in the ground we knew we made it.
We also knew we made it when the cracks beneath our feet were glowing red.
 |
| Yeah. Yikes. |
The small cracks turned into larger fissures:
We didn't see any flowing lava, but there were open, glowing caverns, and you can see that there were tubes with molten rock beneath our feet. This is where the walking sticks came in. We had to tap the ground in front of us to make sure the tubes were solid enough to walk on so that we didn't fall through. We learned quickly after Matt almost did exactly that:
 |
| AHHH!! This is why you need a walking stick. I'm sorry I ever mocked it's usefulness. |
 |
| Hanging out by a lava cavern. No big deal.. |
 |
| This is a very blurry picture of the lava about to spill down the top of the cliff. When that happens, apparently it gets all "National Geographic" here. I would be very scared. |
Ah, sunset at the volcano. The walk back was a lot like the walk there, except that it was in the dark, Matt's feet hurt worse, we were really thirsty, and it was much cooler (yes!). There's not much to say about the walk back that you haven't heard about the walk there except for a couple things:
1. We passed several doomed couples. One didn't have flashlights, only cellphones. I think the woman was in flip flops. Another we passed at beacon 3. That means that they had MOST of the hike left to do and it was about 8:30 PM. The park closes at 10 PM. Let's just say, I'm still worried about them.
2. At beacon 2, we could see the flashing light of beacon 1 AND the bright, beautiful, hope-giving light of the ranger station. When we climbed the next hill however, the ranger light had gone out. So, from beacon one, we didn't have a guide back to the road and ended up hiking too far north. It got scary. I mean, I knew that we wouldn't be lost forever, but I couldn't help thinking that it was a possibility. Thankfully, we saw some shadowy people to our left and followed their voices down to the road. Saved!
How long was the hike? 12 miles round trip
How long did it take us? From 3:30 to 9:30 PM so 6 hours
How were Matt's poor feet? Bad. Really really bad. Shoes were painful for 2 weeks.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. However, I couldn't imagine making the hike to only see the lava in the daytime. The sunset/night made it worth it.
What did we do for dinner? A giant mountain dew and volcano burritos from Taco Bell.
Note: I still have nightmares about hiking the volcano. I just keep walking and it never ends.
So fitting:
When I asked if I could get insurance if the nearby volcano erupted,
they assured me I would be covered.
