​I scheduled my flight later than normal on purpose. I was due to fly out at 8 a.m. and arrive in Hilo at around 8:45 a.m. Brad gave me some tips on what to see on the Big Island including the Mains Kea volcano.

I arrived in Hilo and made my way to Budget Rent A Car. I used some gift certificates that I got from work in order to get a large discount on my rental car.

They gave me a Ford Fiesta, a slightly smaller car then the Ford Focus I had yesterday.  It didn’t have all the bells and whistles on it including the rear camera and it did not seem as powerful as the Ford Focus.

I stopped by Rainbow Falls just a few minutes away from the airport.  Brad had told me to arrive before the bus loads of tourist arrived. I got there and there was only one bus parked there but not as many tourist as what I thought would be. the way the water slows down it makes it look like there is a rainbow around the falls. It was very beautiful. Also by the falls there is a small wooded area with unusual trees with.roots exposed. I did a few videos and pictures in that area as well.

I decided to fill up on breakfast and have a late lunch so that I would not be hungry during the lava tour. I stopped at McDonalds at 10 a.m. but was told they had stopped serving the entire breakfast menu but the all-day breakfast menu was available. I was disappointed that I could not get spin as I was looking forward to getting it at McDonalds. Instead I got a sausage McMuffin with cheese. I managed to fill up my Ozark Yeti knockoff cup with eyes from their ice dispenser. I didn’t stop to buy Subway to get lunch to go. I mention to the sandwich artist that I was going to volcanoes and she said that was where she was from. I asked her about the Mauna Kea volcano and the Volcanoes National Park to try to determine if I could do both come one day and still make it in time for my lava tour at 4:30 p.m. She seemed to think I could but would not really give me a definite answer.

I then decided to drive up Mains Kea. It was about an hours drive away from Hilo. I would be using the infamous saddle Road in order to get to it. I’d always heard stories about how local Hawaiian drive really fast on this road.

After several minutes on the road I turned up the road in order to go to the doormat volcano. the paved portion of the road going up was somewhat steep and I was a little bit worried that my Ford Fiesta wouldn’t be able to make it. There were sons to check road conditions at the visitor center. When I got to the visitor center I tried to find a parking space that but there was none to be found. I did see parking spaces on the road but I decided to forgo parking and just head up the hill. Brad had warned me that there would be signs stating that no rental cars were to be used past a certain point. But the tourists always ignore that and drive all the way up to the top of the mountain which is what I was planning on doing. Sure enough there were signs indicating 4 by 4 only. I followed Brad’s advice and headed up the hill and soon encountered a gravel road. The road became pretty steep with a lot of Curves. I was a little bit worried that my Ford Fiesta would not make it up the hill. I was giving her all she’s got. After a while I got to pay for some of the road. I think they don’t pay if the road to discourage tourists from trying to drive up there. But somehow portions of the road at The Summit are paved.

The summit had many Optical and radio telescopes. Book The Lone Visitor Center that I found was not open. The rest of the telescope Square for the University of Hawaii to use.

Throughout my drive up there I noticed all of the road signs had large holes in them purposely put there. It wasn’t gunshot holes rather it was done by a machine at the point of manufacturing. I can only surmise that maybe the holes were put there so that it would not blow down during wind storms.

I spent a few minutes driving around at the top and taking several pictures and videos. On my way down I noticed a woman trying to hitchhike down with a Jeep parked in a parking lot nearby. Using my best judgment I decided not to give her a ride. I’m sure she would have been harmless but I really just don’t ever pick up hitchhikers.

I got to the visitor center and purchased a Christmas ornament to remember my time at the volcano. The lady didn’t give me a bag and mentioned that they were going back was there to reduce trash.

Next I decided to head to Volcanoes National Park which was about an hour drive away from my present location. I figured I could get there and have a good hour in the park and then be able to make my lava Tour by 4:30.

After about an hour of driving I reached Volcanoes National Park and stop at the visitor center. All the picnic tables were taken so I decided to eat my lunch on an old stump while standing. Thankfully virtually all the ice was unmelted in MA Ozark cup. I then set off to try to find the Kilea Iki crater. It was something that I missed doing 8 years ago whenever I was first on the big island. There is a way to get down to the bottom of the crater by hiking but I haven’t figured out how to get there.

I got to where I thought the Trail began and started hiking but it seem like I was not getting any closer to the crater and instead was hiking around the rim of the crater. I turned back and found a sign at the beginning of it stating that it was a 2 hour hike. I quickly decided to make other plans because I would not have been able to see the crater and have the lava tour. I decided to try and find the Thurston lava tube. I had seen it before but I remember it being a very short walk to it and something I could do within the allotted time. Unfortunately the parking lot was full with cars. This is an ongoing problem with Hawaii in general.  There is simply not enough parking spaces for all the rental cars. I drove around and found a Lookout Point for the crater.

I decided to check my phone to find out how long it would take me to get to the Rendezvous point for the lava tour. I had checked earlier and it said that it was an hour to get to the tour from Volcanoes National Park. However this time I checked and it said two and a half hours. In a panic drove back to where I came and started on my journey to the Rendezvous point for the volcano tour. At this point I called love the land which is the group that is organizing the tour. The lady on the phone was very kind and helped to guide me along the way and said that I was ok because GPS’s tend to mess up around this area. I later found out that the Google Maps had changed from car directions to bike riding directions when I entered in Volcanoes National Park.

After about an hour I made it to the Rendezvous point for the lava tour. I asked the first tour group that I spotted if that was Lava Land Tour and he said yes. I picked up my bicycle for a 3 Mile ride. Thankfully I was able to keep up with our tour guide. I felt that I was in better shape than some of the other folks on the tour. At times I was riding up here and it was a bit more difficult with unsteady gravel. But the wind was to our backs which helped as well. Along the way I saw shacks of houses where people had set up to live. I later found out that this used to be a subdivision and all of the houses had been burned up by the volcano. People were selling drinks along the way. I’m not sure if they were former residents or just people looking to make a quick buck. We crossed a gate which said residential area. Obviously this is where some of the houses were. After a few miles we made it to the National Park boundary which had another gate to it. Eventually we got out and our tour guide change the bikes to a post and We hiked the area near the ocean. You could see the lava flow jumping into the ocean and steam building up as it happened. You could tell that the law but was red and orange. 

It was very exciting to see this. We spend a few minutes there making pictures and video before moving on to get closer to the lava flow. We moved to a closer crowded area to see the lava flow. The park rangers head broke off in the area but people were behind the Rope near the ocean. The park ranger made the people move. I noticed there was some guy in the front of the area with a tripod and camera taking hundreds of photos of the lava. I couldn’t understand why he was dominating the area in prom photo taking position and not allowing others to share in the photo taking.

After a while there we decided to go 3/4 of a mile away from the ocean to sea a hotspot of lava. The lava there was amazing. It’s just like how you see it on documentaries. The Louisville is orange and it bubbled up and burst forth whenever the pressure became too much to keep it inside of the hardened lava. I took several pictures and made several video there.

It was at this point that I noticed all around us you could see was lava rock and it all look the same. Had I not had a tour guide I would have been completely lost. Our tour guide mentioned that many times there are rescues needed out here because people get dehydrated or lost. I think this area could be a great place to spend a devotional talking about being spiritually lost. There is no way that I can correctly put in words how vast it seemed. Everywhere you looked there was just miles and miles of lava rock.

Within our group there was probably about for families represented not including myself. There was a couple from Florida,  Another family from Australia, and two other families. I was wearing my GoPro chest strap and I noticed another teenager in our group wearing his GoPro as well.

When it started getting dark is when we headed back. It seemed to be a long hike but the length of the hike was probably misconstrued to the fact that we were having to use flashlights on uneven surfaces. We made it back to the road and walked a few feet to our bikes. It was then I was to start possibly the most tiring bike ride I had done ever. I walked much of the way with my bike. We had one girl to fall after just getting on the bike to roll out because the gravel with so uneven. To make matters worse we were riding into the wind. We did have flashlights secured to the handlebars of the bikes to help us navigate. But I was unable to adjust the size of the beam from my flashlight and it seem to be blinding several people as I was traveling. One kid made somewhat of a sarcastic remark and said in general put down your lights. It was then that I figured out that I should probably shut my beams to the ground.

But eventually I made it back to my vehicle and wasn’t the last person to arrive. The tour guide had taken a handful of people to the lava flow dumping into the ocean and was going to be sure to be the last one out.

Hi then drove back to my hotel and checked in. This particular Hotel like the rest of Hawaii has very little parking. I made my own parking space and I’m not even sure it is legal. But the hotel has my license plate number so they can notify me if it needs to be moved. I then decided to get Domino’s Pizza not necessarily because I was craving Dominos but because they were open. They close at 11.

Tomorrow I’m headed back to Volcanoes National Park to visit the Kilauea Iki Crater, among other things.