After driving halfway around the island, by way of Hilo, we finally arrived at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park visitor center about 4:00 PM so that we'd have enough time to circle the crater and see everything we wanted to see before dusk. When the sun goes down there is an exodus down the Chain of Craters Road and everyone tries to get a glimpse of the glowing lava flowing down to the sea. We got our first look at the crater from the Volcano House Hotel and the contrast between the dark black lava and the greenery at the hotel was striking. But the starkest contrast I saw was between the desolate crater and the bright tropical flowers left at the edge during a native ceremony on this sacred ground.

We circled the crater on the road that goes all the way around it, stopping at the special areas such as the sulphur banks, the steam vents and the Thurston Lava Tube. We saw an endangered Nene bird along the road to the tube and stopped to take its picture. The tube was interesting, cold and dark, hard to imagine that hot lava used to pour thru it years and years ago.

We headed down the Chain of Craters road at dusk, stopping along the way to let Darrell "hang loose" on the lava. After reaching the bottom, we found a place to park and walked out over the lava to find a spot to wait until dark. The lava comes down thru lava tubes and dumps into the ocean, producing large amounts of steam. After dark, the lava can be seen thru holes in the tubes, glowing in the distance. We managed to see it glowing in two separate spots then we made the winding trek back up the Chain of Craters road and went west to complete our big circle of the island.

It was a long day, a lot of miles and winding roads getting back to the hotel. There was a full moon that night which was shining out over the water, making it sparkle. We had a little light rain going back so the drive was stressful for a time, what with winding roads and driving in dark, unfamiliar territory. But overall, the day was great. We saw a lot of the island in a short time and enjoyed quite a variety of activities and sights during our big island adventure.