Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: Steam Vents

On By nationalparkswithtIn HawaiiLeave a comment
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Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

Aloha➢

My family and I took a cruise around the Hawaiian islands in 2019. We embarked in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Prior to embarkation, we spent a few days on land and explored Oahu. Using Hilton’s Hawaiian Village as our base, we enjoyed visiting many interesting sites before boarding the Pride of America. We spent a week on board cruising the Hawaiian Islands. Our first port of call was Kahului Harbor on Maui.

After Maui, we sailed to the big island of Hawaiʻi. On the big island we had two ports; the first was Hilo. At the port, we met our guide from Roberts Hawaii. He took us to Volcanoes National Park where we visited the Volcano House, the steam vents, Kilauea Iki and Chain of Craters. We stopped at Big Island Candies on the way back to port for some goodies. Back at the port, we hopped into a taxi to go to Rainbow Falls and Richardson’s Black Sand Beach.

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After visiting Volcano House and the park’s visitor center in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, our tour continued on to the Steam Vents parking lot. We walked through a grassy meadow to the caldera’s edge.

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From this paved path, we could see steam billowing out of the earth in places.  A few feet down, the ground is so hot that trees can’t take root here, but the tall grasses thrive.

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The steam vents are caused by groundwater seeping through to the hot volcanic rock below. When it makes contact with the hot rocks, it is expelled back up through fractures in the earth as steam.

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At Steaming Bluff, a cliff overlooking the caldera, we paused for some photos of the crater. Then we walked a short way on the trail leading away from the overlook along the rim.

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You can’t go very far on the rim trail because the 2018 eruption destabilized parts of it. The Jaggar museum still sits on this trail, a little further down, but it is no longer structurally sound and so is closed to visitors.

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After we’d seen our fill of smoldering fields, we headed back to the bus for our next destination in the park.

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Hilo Posts➢

  • Volcano House
  • Steam Vents
  •  Kīlauea Iki
  • Chain of Craters Road
  • Big Island Candies
  • Rainbow Falls
  • Richardson’s Black Sand Beach
  • Mokuola
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Location: 1 Crater Rim Drive, Volcano, Hawaii
Designation: National Park
Date designated/established: August 1, 1916
Date of my visit: April 16, 2019

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