Volcanoes National Park, Hilo, Hawaii. January 23, 2026.
Moving day! But not to another island, rather to the other side of “The Big Island”.
And the island is big. Without stops the drive was over three hours long and covered 125 miles of coastline. Fortunately, there was a stop and what a stop it was!
Volcanoes National Park was established in 1916, shortly before the creation of The National Park Service. It was designated an International Biosphere Reserve in 1980 and a World Heritage Site in 1987. In May 2018, the park summit (4,000 feet above sea level) was closed to the public due to explosions and toxic gas occurring within the crater. Portions of the park reopened to the public in September 2018.
The Caldera is approximately 3 miles in diameter and until recently could be circled by the 11mile Crater Rim Trail. Portions of the trail remain closed due to the risk of collapse and continued volcanic activity.
The volcano Kilauea and the Halema’uma’u caldera are considered by tradition as the sacred home of the volcano goddess Pele.
In years past visitors often removed small objects and stones from the park. To combat this “looting“ a rumor was started that Pele, in her displeasure, would bring bad luck upon any visitor who stole from her. Our group leader, Susan, was once employed as a Volcanos Park Range. One of her duties was opening the Park mail. Susan reported that on a typical day 30 to 50 parcels were received, often with small notes of explanation, containing stones that the senders were returning in hopes of ridding themselves of Pele‘s curse.
Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Today we saw many steam vents, but no magma or lava flows.
It was still a stunning sight. At times members of the group sensitive to airborne irritants found themselves coughing as clouds of sulfurous gas wafted in our direction.
Ordinary photographs could not compress the scale of what was before us. I found that by shooting a slow panning video I could largely overcome that limitation.
It was noteworthy that from where we stood we were able to see not only Kilauea but the two largest volcanic mountains, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. As Susan explained, usually one or both of these summits are obscured by clouds. Three for the price of one!
After we left the park there was a late lunch. We stopped at one of the black sand beaches where it was a good fortune to see greens sea turtles, and even breaching, humpback whales!
We finally arrived at 5pm at our hotel, The Royal Kona Resort in Kailua-Kona (sometimes referred to as Kona Town). This is the second largest community on the island, the largest being Hilo.
The resort was originally opened in 1968 as the Kona Hilton. It hides its 55+ year age well and the location cannot be beat. Our room is wonderfully comfortable.
Annually, this is the location of the famous Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon.
Joe Tormelleri, renowned for his intricate hand drawings of hundreds of fish species, (what Audubon was to birds, Joe is to fish) is a reader of these posts. Joe also is a collector of vintage movies. Joe forwarded to me a link to his 1930’s 16 mm home movie of vacationers on Hilo Hawaii. It shows many of the places that we have visited, but the train, trestles, and many buildings seen in the 3 minute movie were wiped out in the tsunami of 1946. It is available on YouTube and I am providing the link here:
Tomorrow I am passing on a snorkeling outing in favor of a little more rest. In the afternoon we will be exploring the nearby community, which is known for producing some of the world‘s finest coffees.
Peace Everyone! Pete
PS. Here are some additional pictures:
