Hawai'i - "The Big Island" (WIP)

I had been to Hawai'i 3 times previous to this trip. One trip to Oahu + Kauai, one to Kauai, and another to Oahu + Molokai. Living in Seattle, Hawai'i is quite accessible (relatively speaking), but we don't end up coming too often (after this trip, only 3 times in the 14 years I've been living in Seattle). I usually plan my partner's family trips over the end of year holidays. This year people wanted to go to Hawai'i. Between Thanksgiving & New Years is the high tourist season for the islands, and Hawai'i is already an expensive place. We also looked at going to Maui but it was prohibitively expensive, and many people have rightfully told me that I'd love The Big Island.

Kīlauea Eruption

Before this trip I was totally unaware that Kīlauea is the most active volcano on the planet. It erupted continuously from 1983 until 2018! When we arrived it had been "erupting" for one year (since December 2024). These long eruptions are marked by more violent "episodes" where surface level activity is visible, either lava flowing or fountaining (spraying into the air).

On our first day on the island, while driving to the south end, we stopped at a chocolate stand on the side of the road (Kona Magic Chocolate). The owner, James, was a super nice guy and beyond teaching us a ton about chocolate and feeding us free samples, he also mentioned that Kīlauea was soon to go off and that he had the live stream up on his home TV 24/7. At the first signs of an "episode" he would jump in his car and race up to watch the spectacle. Even after decades of living on the Big Island he wouldn't miss an opportunity to see the power that Kīlauea produces. He mentioned that if you wait too long to head up you can get caught in a cluster of traffic which can detract from the experience.

After getting the tip from James we kept a close eye on the USGS Kīlauea Updates page, and signed up for notifications which get sent when episodes begin. They've been putting out daily updates during the current eruption. Lucky for us, the next episode, 39, was forecast to occur during our trip!

For our trip we booked a place in Kailua-Kona for 9 days, but as it got closer I decided I wanted us to spend a night in Hilo (honestly wish we had spent 2 or more, but more on that later). Hilo is much closer to Volcanoes National Park. We picked our night in Hilo based on being able to go to the Hilo Farmers Market on Wednesday morning. At some point after tracking the USGS updates for a few days, I asked Jimmy (Angela's Dad) when he thought Kīlauea's next episode would begin. He said it would begin between 8 & 9pm on December 23rd—the night we were to spend in Hilo. His answer was purely based on what would be the most convenient for us since we'd be wrapping up dinner and able to head up to the park. Little did we know that's exactly what would happen.

We went to Tetsumen for dinner on the night of the 23rd. The ramen was delicious and we kept an eye on the live stream during dinner. Even before dinner the lava had started flowing—other people in line also had the stream pulled up. After wrapping up dinner we headed straight for the park. We got super lucky and hit zero traffic on the way up. As we got closer the sky began to glow red and we all wondered to ourselves if we were crazy for driving towards an erupting volcano.

Lots of people had already arrived, so we parked quickly and hiked about a mile to Keanakako'i Overlook. It felt kind of like going to a concert or music festival, except there was no music. As we got closer the glow got brighter, the fountains became visible, and we began hearing a noise like a jet engine. The "Episode" officially began at 8:20pm, almost exactly when Jimmy had predicted a few days earlier! It was quite the sight, with two fountains coming out of separate vents topping out at 1,400 feet in the air. I think it was the second highest lava fountain of the eruption so far.

We spent a little more than an hour basking in the spectacle, taking photos & videos. Some people were even FaceTiming friends which was rather entertaining. It was drizzling the whole time we were there but no one really noticed the wetness. At some point the fountains started diminishing in height & grandeur and we hightailed it out of there. The road we took in had become a parking lot with hundreds of cars immobile. We sat in the car for about 20 minutes waiting to move an inch, during which I wondered if the spectacle would be worth it if we had to spend 4 hours extricating ourselves. Eventually things started moving and we were able to get out of there. Rangers had taken charge of the situation and there was easily 4 miles (!) of traffic waiting to get in. Thanks to James' advice we got in and out with minimal ordeal and got to catch the sight of a lifetime!

Mauna Kea

Having never been to the Big Island before, I thought it would be cool to go to the top of Mauna Kea. It is after all both the tallest (from base to top), and the largest mountain by volume mountain on the planet. Because it starts 20,000 feet below sea level, it is a BIG mountain. Because of how tall Mauna Kea is and dry the atmosphere is it is the site of 13 major telescopes.

Getting to the top presents some challenges though. In order to pass the Visitor Information Station, you must have a car with 4wd. They specifically want the car to have 4-lo. This is particularly important on the way down, where without it you might need to rely on your brakes, which after the more than 4,500 foot descent might literally catch fire. There are lots of tours that will take you to the top in a big van, serve you food or warm drinks and then let you stargaze and look through telescopes (not the big ones). All of the ones we could find though were ~$300 per person. For our group of 5 that would come out to $1,500! What other options did we have...

Hawai'i is an expensive place, and the week we were there (Christmas) is probably one of if not the most expensive week of the year. I'd already rented a car for the duration of our trip, but one that would not be allowed past the visitor center. I set about trying to find a 4wd vehicle to rent. I found Big Island Jeep Rental, but they had a 4 day minimum, and the normal ~$160 per day price had been increased to >$300 per day. A 4 day rental came out to $1,200! It wasn't clear to me that the 4wd was useful enough that it warranted keeping for 4 days of our trip and especially at that price. I ended up texting the owner of the company and asked if we might be able to rent for 1 day in between some other rentals. He sent me a special booking link that allowed me to, but with a $100 surchage for being less than the minimum. The total to rent the car for 1 day (9am - 1am next morning) was $500! Still expensive, but better than $1500 or $1200, and not that bad for 5 people. We picked up the car and used it to explore a 4wd accessible beach during the day, and then had it for sunset + stargazing that night up on Mauna Kea.