Somewhere along the southern coast of Hawaii’s Big Island near Kalapana, we happened upon a lonesome swing in a cool section of coastal woods. Without much specific on our day’s agenda, we decided to hang out and keep it company for awhile.
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Volcanoes National Park, a Warm-Up Act
After seeing some of Pele’s handiwork first hand, but before getting up close and personal with the volcano goddess, we had the opportunity to glimpse her from afar. Our first night in the Big Island’s Volcano region, we stood on a viewing platform at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. In the distance, a giant plume of smoke rose from Halema’uma’u Crater, part of Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes on earth.
Visitors have long been dazzled by Kilauea—which has erupted more than 60 times since 1823—including Mark Twain, who happened by in the late nineteenth century. As we watched that evening, excitement grew among the crowd standing with us as an orange glow gradually became more and more vivid in the deepening darkness.
This tantalizing hint of Pele’s power was undoubtedly a high point, but the next day we returned to explore the park to see what else it had to offer.
Gorgeous Hawaiian Coast
Every once in a while I capture an image that makes me regret the layout of this blog. This is one of those photos that really deserves a larger format display. For what it’s worth, I left the image larger than normal so you can click on it and download a bigger version.
A Darker Shade of Black
One thing you soon realize while exploring a volcanic island like Hawaii is that black sand beaches are more the norm than the exception. The other thing you realize is that not all black sand is equally black. The younger, it turns out, the darker.
And sand doesn’t get much younger than the twenty-three-year-old variety found on Hawaii’s Kaimu Beach. It’s not often you get to walk on sand nearly half your age, but we did here.
Of course the word dark has more than one connotation and both of those meanings are applicable to Kaimu Beach. Not only is the sand black as night, but so too is the history of the place.
Our First Black Sand Beach
We could see it far below; a thin crescent of ashen sand that split the emerald green valley from the azure blue ocean. The views from Hawaii’s Waipio Valley overlook are satisfying enough that there really wasn’t much need to climb down the roughly 1,000 feet to the valley floor. But we had never seen a black sand beach before and wanted to take a closer look.
Meet Brian and Shannon
Fulltime wanderers since 2010, Brian & Shannon are traveling the world on a quest to see everything there is to see . . . at least once.
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