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Hawaii's Big Island
Paradise Without a Passport
By Belinda Clarke
Where else in the world can you take your kids to see a volcano that is actually erupting and has been since 1983? Kilauea, one of the five volcanoes on the Big Island, is comparatively small at 4,000 feet, but it is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. During the past 1,100 years, Kilauea's lava has covered nearly 500 square miles, and you can see now-hardened flows at the volcano and all over the island.
At Volcanoes National Park, the main feature is the 11-mile Crater Rim Drive, which circles Kilauea's summit caldera (the crater created when the summit of the volcano collapsed). On this easy drive, you can see steam vents, pit craters, recent lava flows (with dates telling you which year the place you're standing on was buried in lava) and a walk-through lava tube. If you're lucky, you might actually view lava pouring into the sea, but that occurrence varies day to day. Regardless, it's a truly amazing sight and an easy two-and-a-half-hour drive from Kona.
There are also affordable accommodations within the actual park at the Volcano House. This historical location was visited by Mark Twain and President Franklin D. Roosevelt and has the world's longest burning fireplace fire, which has been burning continuously for more than 60 years. The view of the volcano from the hotel dining room is stunning and the d袯r is "camp-cozy," with information on local wildlife and the volcano's topography, as well as paintings of Hawaii's various rulers, including one framed in tropical leaves of Kamehameha the Great, the first ruler of Hawaii, from 1795 to 1819.