Making an Ash of ourselves on Kilauea

Posted Wed, 07/28/2010 - 18:58 by WIMPY

As mentioned in a previous post, no vacation trip to the big island of Hawaii would be complete without a visit to the top of Mauna Kea. However, in addition to Mauna Kea, another must see on the big island is a visit to the summit caldera of the Kilauea Volcano. With such a trip in mind, Esterlinkage, Splasher and myself decided to make the multi hour trek by car. Having last visited Kilauea in 1971 as a 5 year old, I found myself filled with excitement to share that memorable experience with my wife and daughter. We armed ourselves with delightful local Cheeseburgers from Annies Island Fresh Burgers .

The staff at Annies were very kind and were intrigued by the mission of SummitCheeseburger. Esterlinkage and I made the decision to go with The Ultimate Classic Cheeseburger, which is made with locally raised beef topped with sharp cheddar cheese served on a classic bun. Splasher chose to abstain from our quest and ordered a grilled cheese sandwhich. After collecting our cheeseburgers we loaded up into our Jeep and continued on our noble quest. As we approached the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the aroma of high quality, locally produced Cheeseburgers wafting through our Jeep was becoming truly maddening. A visit to the the main Visitor Center just inside the park boundaries allowed our group to gain knowledge of the Crater Rim Benchmark and to also learn much of the intriguing history of the volcano. Of great interest to Splasher was the story of Geologist George Ulrich who in 1985 broke through the lava crust into molten lava,while attempting to obtain a sample of molten lava. Luckily he was wearing fire resistant clothing and escaped with just severe burns. Finding out that the Crater Rim Benchmark is just beyond the Thomas A. Jagger Museum, we again climbed back into our Jeep and made our way along the Crater Rim Road. Upon reaching the museum, the bechmark was just a short walk along a well marked path.