Volcanoes National Park

Doodle asked me if Pele, the Volcano Goddess, is nice and I said she's actually pretty grumpy. The natives were always trying to please her because if she got mad, she'd cry lava tears and throw her glass hair around (did you know lava rock is actually glass?). There are numerous Hawaiian legends and plenty of them involve the wrath of Pele when she gets pissed.

(Speaking of myths, my favorite Hawaiian myth is the one about the Naupaka flower.)

After ample time at the Visitors Center (with the best park ranger interactions to date), the kids earned another Junior Ranger Badge. What's required of them to get a badge is incredible and worth every day of missed school. One of the required explorations was to walk through a lava tube.

This was creepy as hell, but we all dug it -- just like the Tom Sawyer cave in Missouri. In fact, it was likely the highlight for all of us.

Kilauea volcano looks different than our Pacific Northwest volcanoes because it's flat and spread out. Picture a stack of pancakes with syrup pouring across them and you've got a good visual. Sometimes the pancake bubbles and syrup blows a hole out the side. It's alive and smoking and my gut was in knots the entire day.

Eventually I realized that I was simply afraid. With a small stumble, one of us could land in a crater or a caldera (why build railings when they just get destroyed by the random eruption?). Also, we watched a movie warning us about walking on the bench because it's "here today gone tomorrow". Falling into a boiling sea is at the top of the list for experiences I'd like to avoid. Finally, there are posted signs everywhere that basically say "walk or breathe at your own risk".

Right now the current lava travels underground for 9 miles, out of the park and onto private property before it pours into the ocean. The once lush hillside, dotted with houses, is now a sea of black lava rock from last year's eruption. A few houses remain...

This is where we were allowed to traverse the lava field. Peanut was fascinated that people would choose to live here (as am I), and she kept talking about the private property aspect, like how nice this person was to let all these strangers walk across their property. We survived the trek with only one stumble by Little Man (small as it was, the cries were loud) only seconds after asking why oh why we had to wear gloves.

At the end of the trail, we witnessed smoke billowing out of the lava tube, but since Pele was in a kind mood, we left without seeing any of the famed red glow. Bummer.