2/19 | Big Island: Hawaii Volcano National Park

John and I woke up to the sun rising and we got some photo ops in before we started our day and we also could see the outside of our rental.  

We realized that the rental was closer to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park then thought.  There were only a few houses between us and that National Park land, but the entrance was a few miles away.  We ventured here and was disappointed that there wasn’t a sign for us to take a picture in front of for the park.  Once we entered the park we went to the visitor’s center, collected our patches and watched a 20 minute movie about the history of the past volcano eruptions.  It was raining off and on, but we still explored the park.  We explored the steam vents and felt the heat coming out of the earth, and took some pictures of the crater at the scenic overlook.  

We drove to the Thurston Lava Tubes and had lunch in one of the tubes that didn’t have any light. 

We continued to drive around the park roads, stopped at the park buildings, took pictures and watched for birds along the way.  There were a few roads that were closed due to recent of past lava flow.

We read in the guide that there was a place called The Steam Vent Inn that had natural steam vent saunas and geo thermo pools.  It said that if you stop by they might let you use them for a price.  We headed that way and met a nice couple that owned this place and gave us a tour and we asked if we could use the saunas.  The owner, Mike, gave let us use it for $10 per person. DEAL!  It was wonderful.  The vents were safe and didn't contain any harmful toxins in the steam like the steam vents closer to the volcano. Mike told us about lava flow at the end of Highway 130 and then we headed into town for some grocery shopping and dinner, then we called it a night.