Yeah, Lava is cool!

Too many people plan a family vacation getaway to Hawaii, visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and don't really experience lava! Come on! You flew all the way here, then didn't take the couple extra hours to search out a cool lava flow. Come on! Don't be like that last family that drove around the Kilauea Caldera, took their pictures and moved on to Hilo.

I found Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to be one of the most fascinating parks I have ever been to in my life. Seriously, how many times in your life are you going to get to watch an island being born? One of the things I thought was truly great, was watching little kids shouting at their parents, "Did you see that?" or "Whoa, that was cool!" as lava poured into the ocean. Watching lava from a distance is cool, especially when it makes contact with the water, but watching it up close is even cooler. In fact, here is a link to watch some live lava flows . So what are the chances that you will see lava? Well, you can go to the USGS lava update site and see, or call (808)985-6000. Your best bet is to call. Okay, so you can see that you aren't guaranteed to see lava, but if there is some flowing, you must see it, even if you have to hike to it. It is worth the experience.

A word of caution if you plan to take pictures of lava up close. Lava has an external temperature around 2000 F, therefore if you are up close to it, you will be extremely hot, in fact our digital camera quit working after a while because of the heat-after it cooled off it worked fine again.

Now I am not being adamant about seeing just lava flows, although that is the coolest thing is Volcanoes National Park. You really must experience this park for what it is. You can actually find 10 of the 15 world climate zones in Volcanoes National Park. You can experience snow and blizzards up on the mountains, then a couple hours later, be sweating like crazy down in one of the rainforests. You can stroll along a trail looking at Hawaiian petroglyphs, walk through a lava tube, or stop and study some of the beautiful birds that call this park their home.