Early morning and I was out the door. Our place is only 6 minutes from the entrance to Volcano National Park. Another 4 minutes down the road and I was at the overlook to Kīlauea Iki Crater. This is a side vent crater off of Kīlauea just outside the big Caldera. This crater likely first erupted in 1445, again in 1868, and the last time in 1959. This is still considered an active crater, and expected someday, to produce lava fountains and lakes again. Someday, but not today, because I was planning on hiking the Kīlauea Iki trail. I had to wait out an unusual morning rain storm but it did eventually end and I headed out on the trail. This a reasonably short trail (about 3 1/2 miles in total) but certainly it covers a lot of different terrain in those few miles. To begin, the trail follows the rim of the crater, essentially a jungle trail with occasional lookouts into and across the crater. Eventually a well maintained trail starts a switchbacking decent into the crater. Reaching the bottom I found the edge of the crater was chunky cooled lava boulders and rocks. Once beyond that, the frozen lava lake was relatively flat. The trail crosses the entire floor of the crater, and then up the rim on the other side. I'm glad the volcano didn't blow, but if it had, once I landed, it would have made a great post for this journal.
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