Hawaii - Day 6

It's Saturday. After eating breakfast we sat out for Volcano Park. The sky seemed to be clearing as we ventured out for the 2.5 hour dive, opting to visit the Park instead of going zip lining. We were wrong. On our way to Volcano Park we ventured out to find Green Sand Beach, which happens to be the most southern point of the U.S. and is one of only 2 green sand beaches in the world; the other being in Guam. As we started down a road that said "do no enter" and there were absolutely no other cars coming or going down that small rocky road, I got a little nervous. We drove about 15-20 minutes before I finally asked M to turn around. I didn't think it would have been likely for such a famous beach to be so hidden and unadvertised. I was wrong, we should have kept going. Maybe next time.

Next stop, Black Sand Beach. I can imagine that the beautiful blue ocean beating against the black sand would be absolutely beautiful in the full glory of the sun, because it was amazing in the cover of gray clouds.

After the beaches, it was on to Volcano Park. Before heading to check out the volcano, I had to buy an actual raincoat because the rain parka wasn't cutting it anymore. After checking out the lava tube, we hiked 4 miles around and through Kilheau Ike Crater in the rain. When we weren't on the hardened volcano keeping warm with the steam vents, we felt as though we were actually going through rain forests. It was incredible to see such different climates so close together. We walked right out of a rain forest onto volcanic rock, which was almost desert like (except for the rain of course). Had it not been raining, we wouldn't have been able to see the steam vents that are actually caused from the rain seeping through holes to find it's way to the hot rock below. Just as recent as the 80's the ground several feet below us was still molten.

On our drive back to the hotel, we stopped at another lookout point to see the Sea Arch.