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On route to the Volcano National Park, we stopped of at a black sands beach. It turned out to be one of our highlights on the trip.

The beach was formed by the surf breaking apart and eroding old lava flows, and then depositing the crushed rock on the beach.

The sand was much coarser than sand you'd find at a beach back home. It kind of reminded me of\ activated charcoal from a water filter.

Here is the remnants of an old lava flow. You can see how the lava was cooling and slowing down as it approached the ocean.

We were lucky enough to have a sea turtle crawl up on the beach while we were there.

The poor girl (or guy) looks tired.

Actually, she looked more than tired, but she was moving around, so it was okay.

Since they are endangered, just getting within 15 ft of them is enough cause to be fined $3000.

So, Sue and I took our picture at a safe distance.

Bill and I talking about how cool his new camera was before we get back on the bus. He let me use it a few times and I have have serious camera envy now.

Next we proceeded on to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the summit of Mount Mauna Loa. At on time, this crater was a boiling caldera of lava.

When you zoom in a little, you can see vents in the ground still steaming from rain and ground water coming in contact with hot magma.

These Red Protea flowers are quite fitting, growing on the summit of a dormant volcano. The blossoms sort of resemble a volcanic eruption.

Sue poses for a picture in front of the crater.

Sue and I pose in front of the 1982 lava flow, the last time the volcano erupted. Many of the roads in the area were covered and had to be rebuilt.

Looking out over the lava field.

We didn't get to see actually hot, flowing lava, but just being able to walk around on the lava field was pretty cool.

Apparently, they feel like building small rock piles, as some hikers are wont to do when marking their trails, disturbs the historical record of the eruption.

Here you can see where the lava path was. It didn't necessarily cover everything in site.

And here you can see some coloration change in the rock, probably due to a difference in mineral content. It was right around here where a lava rock jumped up and bit me in the ankle. Sue showed no sympathy.

I thought this picture was pretty cool. Life is starting to come back to the lava field.

How much would it suck if the crust broke on you like that and there was hot lava underneath?

Our next stop was the Thurston Lava Tube. There was a short hike to get to it, and we felt like we were stepping back to prehistoric times.

Just look at the size of those ferns!

And here is a giant fiddle head.

Finally, we are at the lava tube. Basically, it's a cave formed in a lava flow when the rock harden around the outside and hot lava is still flowing through the center.

It was pretty neat to walk through, but since the lava rock is so porous, it was also very wet from the rain outside.

Just picture that this was filled with hot lava at one time.

It wasn't too far. It took maybe 2 minutes to walk through, but definately worth the experience.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at an orchid farm. They had this very rare orchid in the store, and the sign isn't a joke. Imagine if you bought it and it died after you got it home?