Big Island Hiking x2

 Sunday, November 8

Completely different trail experience hiking in the Kahuku Unit of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Soft, springy grass underfoot the entire time.


We are hiking on Mauna Loa (foreground) and can see Mauna Loa (background).


View to the south. Though we are not as far south as we can go on this most-southerly Hawai’ian island, we are farther south than anywhere mainland US.


Mature Ohia-Lehua tree


The lush ferns, mature forest, and exuberant grasses show that this is a wet part of the island. We anticipated getting some rain on our hike but actually we had only a few light sprinkles off and on. Very breezy and not too warm; it was great weather for hiking. The ferns in front were nearly as tall as us.


Destination for this hike is a forested pit crater. It’s too far across and much too deep to photograph easily. Serena took this panoramic shot. 


Jeff took this wide-angle picture. Those are the tops of mature trees and they come nowhere near the rim.


This photo is from the National Park Service.


The first segment was a small hill/cinder cone near the park entry. Then we drove to the trailhead for the forested pit crater (out and back hike). The third segment should have been a mirror image of the second bit but Serena forgot to turn on her recording for a half mile.

6.4 miles is not a long hike for us. 1500’ elevation gain is a lot but within our ability. Trail was soft, weather was pleasant. Why were we soooo tired? It was quite a struggle to stay awake until 9pm.



Tuesday, November 10

Today we went hiking on the lower slopes of Hualalai Volcano in the Honua’ula Forest Reserve. Most of Hualalai is either private property or kapu to non-Hawaiians. We started this hike at 9:30 a.m. around 3300’ elevation and it was sunny and cool (70 degrees). By 11:00 a.m. at that elevation it was clouded over and when we finished a light rain had started. It was still 70 degrees. Cooler temperatures and raining for some portion of the afternoon is the daily weather pattern above 1000’ elevation up-mountain from Kona. When we got into town after the hike it was 86 degrees and bright sun.



Kahili Ginger (not a culinary ginger)


Ginger root that the wild pigs unearthed (and didn’t eat) with Jeff’s boot for sizing.









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