Volcano, HI - Day 2

Wednesday, April 14

Our day began in Volcano, Hawaii at our rented airbnb just a few miles away from the entrance of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This area is so lush and beautiful with tropical ferns growing abundantly and hanging vines dangling from every tree. Dozens of birds chirping outside our bedroom window and even a few rooster caws awoke us this morning around 6:00am. There’s an edgy and slightly unnerving feeling about staying on the slopes of an active volcano. Fortunately, we live in a world where there’s lots of monitoring and of volcanic activity.

Even on vacation, our family has fallen into a bit of a routine. In the morning, Janie takes a morning walk around the neighborhood wherever we’re staying while I push play on my workout outdoors under a covered garage or patio area. Meanwhile, Andi makes a few phone calls regarding this or that. Tory and Aden typically wake up between 7:00am - 8:00am.

After breakfast, the kids and I did school and then we packed up the car for a day of adventure. We’d originally planned to go back to the national park today, but Steve and Carah (a couple we met through Andi’s friend Clark during our first week in Hawaii, who happen to live near Hilo) offered to take us to one of their favorite hiking / hangout spots on the east side of the island today. We couldn’t pass up the offer! We’ve learned through our travels that when someone offers to share a local experience with you, you say “YES!” It’s the people you meet that make traveling so special, and the memories created with them you’ll remember for a lifetime.

So, even though we just moved on from Hilo yesterday, the five of us piled in the car and drove 25 miles back in that direction. We met Steve and Carah around 11:00am at a trailhead of a “locals only” hike nicknamed Narnia.

The hike is affectionately called Narnia because a flat, one-mile gravel road opens up to an oasis of waterfalls in the forest jungle. As Carah said, “It’s like you’re walking and walking in an area that’s not all that spectacular and then BAM! There it is.” A truly spectacular scene opens up before your eyes — like you’re stepping into another world.

Steve and Carah said Narnia was a family-friendly hike, and the walk along the abandoned road into the waterfalls most definitely was. It was a fairly flat, boring, and straight. Once we reached the waterfalls, our friends told us we had a few options for swimming and exploring. Option A was to walk across a cement dam to reach the waterfalls, swimming holes and cliffs for jumping, or Option B was to scurry down the hillside to a smaller waterfall around the bend. Option C, of course, was to simply look at the waterfalls from a distance and return to our car on the gravel road from which we just came, but none of us were particularly interested in that choice!

Janie said she wanted to stay at the overlook — she wasn’t interested in swimming in waterfalls. I was nervous about wading Tory and Aden into unfamiliar waters, but Steve and Carah assured us it was safe to take the whole family across the dam.

Ready, set, go! We only live once, right?!

Steve and Carah said the hardest part about getting to the waterfalls was walking across the cement dam as water rushed over our feet, so we took it slow as we traversed across the falls all in a line.

Once we crossed the dam, we hiked along a small dirt path in the jungle to another smaller cement dam. Tory and Aden were in seventh heaven, eyes wide with big smiles on their faces. Aden looked back at me and said, “Hike over a waterfall — check!”

Steve showed us some cool tricks — one by sliding on this butt down the rocks into a pool of water created by the waterfall. Andi thought this seemed like a fun idea so he followed suit. He returned to our spot perched on top of the waterfall to say the water was really, really cold and the ride down the rocks was a bumpy one.

Aden wanted to swim, so he jumped into a calmer pool of water at the top of the dam. The water was freezing cold so he didn’t stay in there long.

All of these waterfalls are created by the conference of the Wailuku River, Hookelekele Stream, Lauiole Falls, Pukamaui Falls and Kauwehu Fallscome.

Steve promised Aden he’d jump off one of the tall cliffs, so we followed him down the same jungle path we’d just came to the top of the cliffside. Without fear, Steve did a backflip over the top and plummeted into the water below. Andi decided he’d follow as well, and after a few attempts when butterflies got the best of him, took a running leap and a jump off the cliffside to join Steve down in the water. Aden decided he was next, but oh no! I put my foot down on that idea. “I know this is rude to say, Mom, but you’re treating me like a baby,” Aden told me. Oh well. When you’re a teenager you can come back to this spot and jump off this cliff if you want to. Not at seven-years-old though. Not on my watch.

We had such a fun adventure swimming and exploring Narnia, but after a few hours everyone was getting hungry for lunch. Janie was also waiting for us back at the overlook, so we wanted to be respectful of her time. The six of us crossed the cement dam the same way we came — this time, it didn’t seem so scary now that we knew what to expect.

Steve and Carah decided to join us for a late lunch, and suggested we get take-out from Suisan Fish Market near the Liliʻuokalani Park and Gardens. Unfortunately, all their lunch offerings were picked over by the time we arrived around 2:00pm. Instead, Steve and Carah ran to the nearby KTA grocery store to pickup fresh poke & rice while Andi, Janie, Tory, Aden and I found a picnic table to sit and eat in the community gardens. Not knowing where the day would take us, we’d brought along a “snack lunch” of deli turkey, cheese, crackers, hummus and baby carrots for the afternoon.

After lunch, we walked through the Liliʻuokalani Park and Gardens with Steve and Carah and they shared stories with us about living on the Big Island.

We continued walking through the community gardens to Coconut Island. There were lots of people swimming here in the protected bay and a few local kids jumping off the 20-foot stone tower into the ocean. “Practice for cliff jumping at Narnia,” Steve said.

We thanked Steve and Carah for a fun and adventurous day in Hilo. I hope our paths meet up again one day — they are planning to come to the mainland this summer. Who knows, maybe their travels will bring them to all the way to Wisconsin.

Around 4:00pm, Andi, Janie, Tory, Aden and I drove back to our rented airbnb in Volcano. Tonight, I wanted to re-visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see lava glowing in Kilauea’s Halemaʻumaʻu crater, so we ate an early dinner and then waited around until it was dark enough outside to go. Usually, we’re tucking Tory and Aden into bed around 8:30pm, but tonight we loaded into the car at that time all wearing the warmest clothes we brought with us. It was a chilly 60 degrees outside and lightly raining.

There is no admission charge to get into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park after dusk, so we cruised into the park and drove toward the Steam Vents / Sulphur Banks parking area. There, we parked our vehicle and walked up the short path to the crater overlook.

What we saw with our naked eye was amazing, but not the sight of hot, spewing lava shooting in the air as one might expect. Instead, the lava lake inside Halemaʻumaʻu crater radiated an orange glowing light. It would have been hard to tell what we were looking at had we not visited this same overlook to view the crater in the daylight yesterday.

Tonight, it was rainy, windy and cold which made standing outside viewing the crater for a long period of time less appealing. After viewing the lava glow for a few minutes, we turned around and hurried along the gravel pathway using our phones as flashlights to light the way.

What an amazing day on the east side of Hawaii’s Big Island — one we won’t soon forget.