This was our last full day on the Big Island before heading off for Maui the next day. It was our last chance to go see the Volcano National Park which was the main reason I wanted to go see the island. We had tried going there on our first full day but Tomatico was getting a little motion sickness, probably related to coming down with a slight cold, and we had to turn around before we got very far.

After breakfast we had him take some children’s Dramamine to try to help head off any issues before they happened!

The Long Drive

We started off the same way we started before. We would head south down around the bottom of the island before heading back northeast towards Volcano National Park. It’s about a two-hour drive and the first part is pretty twisty with lots of turns and hills. We made sure to have the kids let us know if they were feeling dizzy at all. They handled things fairly well this time, fortunately.

About 45 minutes into the trip they were both feeling a bit off, though so we decided to stop at a local grocery store to rest and pick up some snacks. Apparently, they were just hungry because they were back to normal after that!

After the first winding section the road, the path was much straighter and smoother for the rest of the trip. We got to see many different landscapes as it was ever-changing from more lush areas to more desert-like areas with everything in between. It was beautiful and interesting, though the kids didn’t necessarily find that part very special.

We finally made it to Volcano National Park and went directly to the visitors center. It is less than a mile from the entrance. It was fairly busy but we were able to find parking relatively close by.

At the entrance to the visitors center, there were several displays and videos about the recent changes to the Kilauea crater. It’s no longer actively erupting as it had been for decades before. There were several signs saying there’s no visible lava on the island at the current time.

After only a couple minutes in the visitors center, we heard an announcement that a free tour was starting just outside so we decided to join that. The guide was a volunteer who was a recent retiree who had lived in the state for most of his life but more recently moved to the Big Island after he retired. He was knowledgeable and engaging as he told us a little about Hawaiian history, the language and the origin of some of the vegetation we saw on the way to the crater.

The tour took us a slightly different way than they used to before the eruptions of 2018 as those had vastly changed the stability of the landscape and the crater itself. We walked behind the Volcano House lodge which is a hotel overlooking the Kilauea crater which is a pretty fantastic and unique view!

It was really had to see the scale of the crater or how much it had changed due to the eruptions. The eruptions, which happened in other parts of the island, had caused the magma below the crater, which was feeding that eruptions for decades, to drain from under the crater. The floor of the crater had effectively been “floating” on that magma. When it disappeared, the crater floor collapsed. The guide said the Empire State Building could fit in the hole where the collapse happened. It was hard to judge the scale, but knowing that reinforced how huge the crater was.

Back in the visitor center, I took another look at the videos showing the before and after pictures to get a better sense of the scale of the change. It’s a completely different looking area now than before and it’s amazing it could change so drastically in a matter of a few short months last year.

From the visitor center, we drove another mile or two down the road to an area the guide recommended where we could get a better view of the crater. It was a more direct view though it was still hard to really grasp the scale of the crater.

From this area, we had a better view of one of the other visitor centers that had a more direct view of the crater. Unfortunately due to the changes from the 2018 eruptions, that visitor had been damaged and was not likely to ever reopen.

Lunch in Hilo

It was getting towards lunchtime and the kids weren’t all that impressed by the idea of hiking any more trails in the heat so we decided to find a place for lunch by heading towards the town of Hilo. It’s the largest city in the eastern part of the island. It’s about 35 minutes away and my wife found a burger place, helpfully called Hilo Burger Joint, that had some excellent reviews

The drive was mostly straight and downhill since we were headed towards the coast. We found the burger joint and after finally finding a place to park headed to hopefully get something good to eat. It did not disappoint. My wife got a fresh fish sandwich while the boys got burgers. I got a wagyu beef burger which is a special type of beef I hadn’t tried before. It was excellent and definitely worth the few extra dollars over a regular burger. The meat was extra tasty.

After lunch, we headed to the Tsunami Museum. We found that Hilo has been hit by several tsunamis in its history. Apparently, the shape of the harbor is especially prone to tsunamis. The museum is in an old bank building that has survived several over the years.

The museum was very well done with before and after pictures detailing the latest two major events in the 1940’s and 1960’s. It talked about the tsunami warning systems and how the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami affected that area. In 2011 the tsunami that cause the damage at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant also caused significant damage along the western coast of the Big Island near where we were staying, though not in Hilo where the museum was located.

It made us much more aware of the evacuation zone signs and alert speakers for the warning system. The kids noticed them as we were driving along. The museum was well worth the admission price.

We were off to find some ice cream for a mid-afternoon stack before heading back to our side of the island. We found a place in google that was close by. The place was busy and had some wacky flavors Tomatico and my wife were interested in trying. My wife ended up getting a soft-serve version of the Hawaiian sweet potato called the uala.

Long Drive Back

Instead of heading back around the southern tip of the island the way we came, we ended up heading straight west over the island. This road was the main road up over Mona Loa volcano and even had two lanes for the uphill portion of the trip. The road was smooth and straight which was a welcome relief after the winding morning drive. There were long stretches of steep uphills for the first part and eventually downhill towards the end. The scenery was not very tropical but was still ever-changing and quite interesting. It reminded me a lot of the desert between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

After driving over the mountain we were near the western edge of the island, but still needed to head south to get to where our hotel was. We decided to eat in town rather than hope for something in the lounge. Tomatico went with my wife to On the Rocks again while my youngest and I ended up getting some slices of pizza.

After our meal, we headed down to the beach volleyball court to watch the locals play. There were some very good players there so it was exciting to watch them. Once Tomatico arrived we watched a couple more games but convinced them to head back to the hotel so we could get the foosball rematch they had been talking about all day.

The day’s trash talking didn’t result in any wins for him, though. My youngest and I ended up victors in all three matches, though all three could have gone either way and were decided by one or two goals.

After “the match” we walked towards the shorefront to watch the dozen or so boats gathered in front of the hotel at sunset. They gather at sunset to watch for the manta rays which are known to gather there at dusk. The restaurant in the hotel is even called Rays by the Bay because of them. Many of the boats were sunset snorkeling tours. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see anything from where we were on the shore.

This was our last day on the Big Island and we’d be leaving just after noon the next day. We decided to head back to our room to recover from our long road trip and be ready for our trip to Maui tomorrow.