Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 1

For Eric's block leave prior to deploying, we went to the Big Island for a week.

Here's a picture of Marcus on the flight over.

I looked at this trip as a chance to relax before we were separated for a year, while Eric looked at it as an opportunity to hike all day.  We stayed at Kilauea Military Camp, which is right inside Volcanoes National Park.  We decided to stay within the park for most of the week rather than trying to drive all over the island.  This allowed Eric to go on some hikes while Marcus and I could relax in the cottage or do some shorter day hikes.

We got there on the afternoon of the 1st and headed straight to the Jaggar Museum.  Here are some pictures of the Kilauea Caldera from the museum.

Next, we headed to the park's visitor center to figure out which hike we could do right away before the sun went down.  They directed us to the Kilauea Iki Crater.  It was pretty cool as we got to actually hike inside the crater.

This is a picture of Eric and Marcus looking out at the hike ahead of us.  If you look closely, you can see the trail through the crater (the light line pointing toward Eric).

Eric and Marcus inside the crater.  Yes we had to climb back up to the top of that ridge behind them.

Once we finished the Kilauea Iki Crater, we realized we had enough time to go to the Thurston Lava Tube as well.  It's basically a cave made from hardened lava.

Eric and Marcus about to head into the Lava Tube.

Eric and Marcus inside the Lava Tube.

After the Lava Tube, we finally headed to KMC to check-in and check out our room.