This is the view of Kilauea Crater and the Halema'uma'u Crater -- it's like a crater within a crater -- from the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It sort of looks like Mars, don't you think? This is where the Hawaiian goddess Pele (goddess of fire) lives.
This is the trail above the fountain of Kilauea Iki, which last erupted in 1959. The splatter from the cone devastated this area so all that you see in this photo is new since then. That means this entire rainforest is younger than I am.
I don't know what this flower is but it was interesting enough that I stopped to take a photo of it. I love the beauty of tropical flowers; it's like they were painted by hand.
It's about two miles from the entrance to the Kilauea Iki trail to the bottom of the lake. We took the hike counter clockwise so the hardest part was going down instead of going up. The hill that you see behind me is the fountain of Kilauea Iki. It didn't exist prior to 1959.
This is the head of a new fern. I like these because they remind me of musical notes. In the state of Maine, people eat these as they are known as fiddleheads from the fiddlehead ferns, and they really quite tasty.
An overview of the lava lake, Kilauea Iki, and Kilauea in the background giving off steam. This is the youngest volcano in Hawaii and still active. Another cinder and splatter cone, Pu u O o, began erupting in 1983 and continues today.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
Comments (5)Subscribe to CommentsComment