Day 2 Adventures: Kilauea Volcano, Lava tube, and a Waterfall

We started the day with a beautiful 3 mile hike around and through the crater of Kilauea Iki Volcano. The first part included a beautiful rainforest hike and then we descended onto the solidified lava lake. A vent wear lava exploded from is visible and we stood in an overlook spot in which this vent spewed lava thousands of feet, setting the rainforest on fire. Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes, so she is a large part of the volcano’s actions and consequences on the land.

View of the cone and lava vent from an eleavted height. — Cone where lava spewed out.

We continued on to Nāhuku, an incredible lava tube, formed over 500 years ago from a lava river flow.

Finally, we stopped at rainbow falls to admire a beautiful water fall as well as an incredibly intricate tree just next to the waterfall. Our TA for the trip, Katie, is a Fluvial Geomorphologist, and explained how a waterfall is a nick point where a drastic change of elevation occurs in a river.

We ended the day with a bit of snorkeling and swimming, I saw many cute fish and one sea turtle 🐢

Thank you for following along! This day included a few other stops, but I wanted to highlight the big stops that I personally enjoyed the most! This trip has been incredible and I can not wait for the next week and a half!!

Grace Mitchener

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