Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - Kilauea Iki

Along Crater Rim Road, we stopped at a lookout over Kilauea Iki, a crater in the Kilauea caldera that was filled with a lava lake in 1959.

Through vegetation


Through less vegetation. You can see the smoke (sulfur dioxide) from the Halemaumau crater in the distance (looks like a low over-exposed cloud).


Seeing that it wasn't very far, we decided to hike down into the crater. The rock underneath is still hot, and water seeping down to the hot rock leads to some steam vents. I've read that you can still feel the heat from the deep rocks on the surface, but in the afternoon sun, it was hard to differentiate that heat from the heat one would expect black rocks sitting in the sun to emit.

A view just as we stepped onto the crater floor


These pretty little shrubs manage to sprout out of what looks it like should be a barren scene.


The Housemate!


A silly (and imperfect--that darn dark strip in the middle!) panoramic. Click for a larger view...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

More great photos!

Unknown said...

The landscape pics are cool, still the underwater ones are my favorites.

Wanted to show you this:
http://kinbari.deviantart.com/gallery/#plushies

My, I want a Garrus plushie!!!!!! *.*
And there's even Jeff Moureau's too, isn't it sweet? ^^

Eleni said...

Hez - Thanks :)

Vanessa - I'm so glad I have the underwater camera--I wouldn't have nearly as many interesting photos without the underwater ones.

Garrus plushie?! Too adorable! I want one! Thanks for the link :)