day 07 – hawaii volcanoes national park

friday.

finally a rest day. i know we have only been riding for a few days but it’s been a lot of climbing. the kilauea military camp is a nice place to rest. the food isn’t great…i’m not sure if we got what we ordered any meal, but it was close and we were hungry. it’s nice having a mattress and a bar both close to each other.

we made our way to the hawaiian volcano observatory at the jaggar museum. there are some very interesting lava samples on display and quite a bit of information about hawaii’s volcanoes and the different types of lava that flow. some of the more interesting display samples were pele’s hair and tears. the lava creates teardrops of volcanic glass that also have such fine strands with them that they look like hair. it’s incredible to see these as well as the vastness of the kilauea crater. we could have hoped for better weather, since we couldn’t see all the way across the crater, but apparently it rains here all the time. at night you can see the red glow of lava steam in the sky.

back at the military camp, there was a halloween party in one of the buildings. it looked like it would get out of control shortly. we decided to skip it due to our early bedtimes and routine.