Our group, descending into a lava tube during our hike on Hualalai Volcano.
Hawaii island is filled with wonderful hikes. The island itself its composed of five volcanoes, including the worlds tallest mountain and the world's largest mountain, when measured down to their base. There are waterfall hikes on the rainy side of the island, and hikes across lava flows on the dry side. But today we did something a little different, and a little less well known. We went up into the cloud forest, beyond closed gates, and onto ancient royal lands, high up on the ridgeline of Hualalai Volcano.
This is the volcano that Kona town is built on the side of. It last erupted in 1801, which means that it will most likely erupt again...and probably in our lifetime. That will be very interesting for the people of Kona town.
Our local guide, Taro, works for the only company that has a commercial permit to access the lands up this far on Hualalai volcano. This is one of my favorite hikes on the Big Island. It combines really incredible volcanic geology, with a pristine native Hawaiian forest, filled with endemic honeycreeper birds, that most people here in the islands will never see. It transports you back in time, to ancient Hawaii, when the first Polynesians sailed to the islands and found forest of koa and ohia trees, filled with colorful descendents of a common finch ancestor. The songs of the honeycreepers, these Hawaiian finches, fill the forest with the same songs that the original Hawaiians would have heard. Nowadays, most of the forest at lower elevations have seen introduced birds completely replace native Hawaiian birds. The latter being driven to extinction with the introduction of rats, cats, mongoose, and mosquitos.
The landscape started off with a 200yr old forest, that had grown up since the last lava flow. Lava cinder crunched under our feet. This was all the little bits of lava that was thrown clear of the fissures. Imagine a lava fountain, spraying bits of lava 1000ft into the air. I imagined that I would not have wanted to be standing here while that was happening. We descended deep into a lava tube, like an underground cave created by lava traveling underground. Then we hiked into the cloud forest, which was a 1000+ year old forest, not effected by the recent lava flows. The soft ground made the descent a bit slippery, but at least it was soft if you fell. It was also nice to have the shade of the canopy over us after being in the sun for the first half of the hike.
This is me, hard at work, as expedition leader aboard the Safari Explorer here in Hawaii.
Shuttlecock ferns emerging as fiddleheads in the ancient Hawaiian forest on the slopes of Hualalai Volcano.
Looking through a lava tube, with a skylight above from a collapsed section of the roof.
My group, exploring the lava tube, lit up by natural light of the skylight.
This was the find of the hike, an apapane nest. These are a tiny finch species that can only be found here in Hawaii.
Tricky footing at the highest part of our hike. This is 6,100ft in elevation, on a narrow ridge of the crater where the 1800 eruption started.
The first part of our hike was dominated by native Hawaiian species like this Ohia tree. Its bright red blossoms are what the honeycreepers love to get nectar out of.
We had beautiful weather for our hike, although it was noticeably colder up at 6,000ft elevation. That's about 1829meters for my international crowd.
Our local guide, Taro, descending into the entrance of the lava tube.
Watching our footing on the ridgeline of a volcanic fissure.
There were several parts of the hike where I instructed our group, "If you feel like falling here, don't."
The way down we descended through an ancient koa and ohia forest. It was filled with ferns and the calls of native honeycreeper birds.
Our guide, Taro, explaining the slow growth of the Ohia trees, and how they are so well adapted to colonize new lava flows.
Looking down at a pit crater.
The environment really changed on our hike back down, as we entered a cloud forest.
This hike was not for the feint of heart. There were a few places with steep drop-offs on either side.
We hung out and talked story for a bit under the shade of this ancient Ohia tree.
Deep inside the older forest. It felt like a different world. So peaceful.
Such a great hike, with a great group of people. Everyone performed admirably, and even though it was difficult for some, no one got injured.
As always, keep traveling!
- Dai Mar