Trip to Hawaii - Day 8 (The Big Island)

Today we left the Kona (west) side of the island to travel all the way around to Hilo (east side of the island), but we took our time getting there because there were lots of great stops along the way!  We drove north about 30 minutes and went through Waimea to go to Waipio Valley Overlook.  This was our view down into the valley...

See all those specks in the water near the bottom of the picture?  Those are bunches of surfers.  The waves were pretty big here!

After leaving Waipio Valley, we stopped in the nearby town of Honoka'a for something called malsadas from Ted's Drive-In.  This was breakfast for us.  We were told about these by our Hawaiian friend.  They are like donuts, but so, crazy good!  We bought WAY more than we could eat (didn't realize how big they were) and we were snacking on them all day.

From there (we were now on the north side of the island), we drove another 30 minutes to Akaka Falls State Park.  This is some of the scenery we saw on that drive...

Akaka Falls was located in this State Park, which had a paved trail you could walk all the way through the park on.  It was a BEAUTIFUL, leisurely walk, about 2 miles, in the shade of the forest...

 Colton and Kyle learned to do this from Mark...

A view of Kahuna Falls from the trail...

Next we drove the rest of the way to Hilo.  Around Hilo there were some more falls to see.  We saw Rainbow Falls, which you didn't even need to hike to.  It was a short walk from the parking lot to the viewing platform...

From there we drove to Pe'epe'e Falls (which our family pronounced 'pee pee' falls, much to their own delight!).

You could see the falls on one side of the bridge, and the Boiling Pots on the other...

Driving through Hilo, we stopped at a school (it was Fall Break, so school was out) because Mark and the kids wanted to play soccer on their big field at the school.  We were amazed at these trees in the front of the school.  Two, massive, old trees...

From Hilo, we drove to nearby Volcano National Park.  The actual park was closed due to the government shutdown, but we drove to a point where the highway actually ended because lava had crossed the road as it went through and destroyed homes in a residential area.  This next photo is not one I took, but one I found on the internet showing when the lava crossed the road...

 The latest homes were destroyed in 2012.  This volcano has been erupting continuously since 1983.  You could still see steam rising where lava continues to cool.  Some people have bought the lots in this neighborhood for super cheap, and built foundationless homes, right on top of the lava rock.  It was interesting to see.   They can only access their homes using 4-wheel drive vehicles they must drive over the lava rock.

 There was a park ranger stationed here to explain to visitors about the site.  He is actually one of the people who owns a home he built right on top of the lava rock!

Here you can see the steam still rising from the cooling lava...

As the sun was beginning to set we traveled to the Mauna Kea Volcano Visitor's Center, just short of the summit if this mountain.  On the way, as the sun was setting, we saw this on the road ahead of us...

On our way up Mauna Kea, we pulled over so I could take pictures of this...how beautiful to be above the clouds with the sun setting on this scene!

It snows at the summit of Mauna Kea in the winter!  Even with as warm as it had been our entire stay here, we were glad to have brought sweatshirts and pants for this part of our trip.  It was cold up there!  Especially at night!  The International Astronomy Visitor's Center sets up their big telescopes every night for visitor's to look at the moon, planets, and stars.  It was really cool!  Mauna Kea reaches 13,796 feet into the sky, and is the tallest mountain in the state of Hawaii.  When measured from the sea floor, it is the tallest single mountain found anywhere on Earth!  The summit is above 40 percent of the Earth's atmosphere.  Mauna Kea summit houses the world's largest observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy.  It has telescopes operated by astronomers from eleven countries.  The combined light-gathering power of the telescopes on Mauna Kea is fifteen times greater than that of the Palomar telescope in California - for many years the world's larges - and sixty times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

After leaving Mauna Kea we drove home.  We saw a lot today!  So fun!!