Hawaii Volcanoes

We had heavy clouds for our first Hawaiian national park, and an actively erupting volcano for our second. Since Kilauea began erupting in May 2018, we had to pivot our visit to the Kahuku Unit of the park, because the main portion of the park was closed due to the significant eruption that was taking place. This eruption produced a large volume of lava, which eventually led to the collapse of the Kilauea summit caldera. We were of course bummed to not be able to go into the heart of the park, but it was also kind of cool that the volcano was actively erupting while we were on the island. (Except for the fact that this eruption actually damaged a ton of homes and structures and put people in danger—very not cool!) Luckily for us, the Kahuku Unit of the park was open during our visit, so we still got to see part of the park, and it was worthwhile to visit! Here the landscape changed from green rolling hills, to red rocky interiors exposed by mining, and old, black lava flows that had previously decimated the terrain from eruptions long since past. I’m glad I still got to see part of this park since I had made it all the way to the Big Island, but I definitely want to come back one day to see more of the park that I missed!