TODAY I'd like to say a special thanks for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and its environs. I have visited it at least once a year since 1946 and did again last week - feeling rhapsodic about it once again. Revisiting Volcanoes
National ParkWhen I mentioned that wonderful feeling to a relative, he asked why I didn't retire there. "Because then I couldn't visit there," I said.
It is tempting to say the park and its surrounding villages are unchanging. The quiet, serene atmosphere of a community in the cool weather nearly 4,000 feet above sea level seems constant. Volcano House remains a familiar anchor sitting on the edge of a dramatic, sometimes active, crater.
But the reality is different. Earth-making in the raw can be seen here. Lava flows periodically disrupt the road system. A 1982 earthquake did, too. In the past 50 years Kilauea Volcano has pumped up and spread out a volume of new, molten earth many, many times what construction crews have done throughout Hawaii. Its flows into the sea have added hundreds of acres to the Big Island.
I have seen lava fountaining in the central Halemaumau firepit, the home of Pele, the volcano goddess, as well as on the miles-wide surrounding floor of Kilauea Volcano's summit crater. I also have seen it on the craters and slopes of the East Rift Zone that slopes down to the ocean bottom. A giant new mountain has been built. Beloved landmarks and many homes have been buried.
So "unchanging" is not an accurate word.
I also have seen the forested Volcano Village community gain a new neighbor in the dry, mostly treeless area surrounding Volcano Golf Course. In an abrupt climate zone change, the ohia forest on the east crest of the volcano becomes an arid desert on the west. Golf Course Subdivision is on the cusp.
I also have seen, happily, the longtime farmers of the area, mostly Japanese, come together with the newer Caucasian community, mostly retirees, to build with tremendous volunteer labor contributions the Cooper Community Center to serve both.
So, again, unchanging is not an accurate word.
I also have seen Volcano House descend from a very wonderful hostelry to a very poor one that now is starting a climb back. The always-burning fire in its lobby fireplace has stayed constant.
The National Park Service, which operates the park, has had to turn to volunteers to help flesh out its staff under budget cutbacks, yet retains a dedication and aloha spirit that also is constant. All of them revel in being allowed to help maintain and interpret this wonderful national asset, its viewpoints, scenic roads and trails.
When park admissions go up to $10 per car per week on Feb. 1, they still will be a bargain compared to the price of a three-hour theater ticket. They include, in fact, a best-ever volcano movie shown every hour at park headquarters. "Inside Hawaiian Volcanoes" narrated by Roger Mudd has superb eruption footage intermeshed with an explanation of the inner earth plumbing that generates Kilauea's eruptions.
It is good to see before you go out to see the real thing. Stay overnight or longer if you can and try the roads and trails.
THERE are a number of good bed-and-breakfasts. Kilauea Lodge has good dinners, too, outsiders welcome.
My favorite park activity is a daybreak half-mile walk in solitude from Volcano House to the Steaming Bluffs. There, tradewinds constantly waft steam out over the crater.
In this short span you walk from ohia trees, lehua blossoms, ground orchids and ferns into desert. You pass steam vents that wrap you warm in the cool morning. With luck you will see distant Mauna Loa turning red as sunrise marches down its slope. With even more luck you will see rainbows on the bluffs' steam and your own shadow there.
Dress warm, but it's an easy path that truly hasn't changed in all the 50 years I have walked it.