Seniors Enjoy Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is a fascinating world of active volcanism, biological diversity, and Hawaiian culture, past and present. Seniors can easily visit Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park by car in just a few hours or may be explored in more depth over several days.

Just about everything you might want to know about the Park is here. The Park extends over 333,000 acres in the south central part of the Big Island and is the island’s most popular attraction, drawing more than 2.5 million people a year. Located 30 miles from Hilo and 96 miles from Kona, it’s a place where volcanoes erupt, lava flows, and ancient myths meet together.

 At this park, senior visitors can watch the landscape change before your very eyes. Located 30 miles southwest of Hilo is the home of Kilauea Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes on earth. The chance to witness the primal process of creation and destruction make this park one of the most popular of visitor attractions in Hawaii and a sacred place for Native Hawaiians.

 Seniors Find Not Just One But Two

Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is home to two of the world’s most active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa.  Lava-lit gases pour from Kilauea’s unstable Pu’u ‘O’o vent. This is a highly popular site on the Big Island.

In a few hours senior visitors can see an active volcano, dozens of active steam vents, old lava flows, old lava tubes, sulfur pits — very cool.

 The Park comprises a land of great contrasts and contradictions ranging from dry as dust desert to teeming tropical jungle; from frigid sub-arctic wasteland to steaming black sand beaches and rivers of flowing lava. Most people don’t  schedule enough time to explore this amazing place and wind-up hurrying through. Established in 1916, the Park is almost half a million acres in area, about the size of O’ahu, but lots more interesting.

 Seniors Intrigued With Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is the most massive mountain on earth, occupying an area of 10,000 cubic miles. Measured from its base on the seafloor, it rises 30,000 feet, more than a thousand feet higher than Mount Everest.

In contrast to the explosive continental volcanoes, the more fluid and less gaseous eruptions of Kilauea and Mauna Loa produce fiery fountains and rivers of molten lava.

A flight over the massive volcano will prove to be a highlight of your visit to Hawai’i. My wife and I took a flight over Maui for our 50th and it proved to be a most memorable one. Enjoy your visit to the Park and be sure to bring along lots of memory on your camera.   jeb