Chain of Craters Road
/Chain of Craters Road extends from the Kilauea Caldera down to the sea in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park – an elevation change of about 3,700 feet in just under 19 miles of roadway. There are stops along the way….and some ‘road trip’ type pictures through the car’s windshield.
The eye is drawn to the plants that are surviving on the lava – ferns and grasses 
And epiphytes covering trees that are not doing so well.
Any color change from black or gray is noticeable. This is a ‘lava tree’ where lava surrounded a tree and cooled enough to retrain the shape of the trunk before the tree burned away completely.
Sometimes there are collection of glassy blobs – shiny and different colors from the surrounding lava.
The color differences may be caused by different cooling rates or mineral content of the lava.
There are craters along the road. Some are quite old with light gray lava and tress clinging to the sides.
And then there is a stretch where there is fresher lava on both sides of the road. Mauna Ulu is the background of this picture.
As we drove down the cliff to the sea – it was clear where lava falls has gone over the surface and down to the sea.
There was a road cut through one such flow.
Seeing this – I wondered why the majority of Hawaiian beaches are not black sand!
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