Hawai'i Big Island Trip Day3

This day we hiked Napau trail in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. It is a 14-mile day hike to see two craters. There is not really established trail, you just walk on lava. Trail will be marked with a pile of lava (see the left picture).

On the way to the craters, I saw many steam coming from from lava (picture above). I got close to the steam area and it was warm. First crater you see is Makaopuhi Crater. Wow. It is huge.

Makaopuhi Crater

Napau Crater

Then 2 more miles you see Napau Crater. The mountain over the Napau Crater is Pu’u’O’o (I don’t know how to pronounce any Hawaiian language). This is one of the 2018 eruptions and still steam is coming. We were taking nap at the point I took the left picture. Then we heard one couple coming by. They are Canadian and they do this hike EVERY YEAR. Wow. They love Big Island. They might want to be at warm place in winter. They are from West coast Canada and they said that West coast is the best part in Canada in winter. Probably only 4 people came to this point on that day. It seemed that not many people hike this far in Hawaii. The vast majority of people are laying down on the beach.

Then we camped at Kulanaokuaiki campground (first-come first-served) in National Park. There are only 10 sites, so I was little worried if there was an open spot, but only 2 sites were taken. Here I got confident that the vast majority of people stay at nice place and nobody camps.