Hawaiians still walk out to her through the steaming landscape, skirting the toxic, sulfurous vapors of the vents, then dropping gifts of food and flowers, lowering themselves in prayer. They are kneeling only two miles above a seething magma reservoir. West of the crater is the Southwest Rift Zone and the Ka'u Desert, where the landscape appears torched by lava and the persistent arid climate. Yet, a mile and a half east of that area, riders and hikers on the rim encounter dense rain forest, which nearly hides the Thurston Lava Tube and attracts all those chilly, un-Hawaiian downpours. The tube is a reminder that strange things happen during eruptions, such as when lava surf curls and then cools off while the melting middle drains away.
People can take a short stroll through the tube and then get a reminder of something else.
Hawaii Volcanoes is a wildlife habitat and a botanical wonder. Early arrivals left petroglyphs, walls and agricultural pits that still can be seen in the park. English explorer Capt. James Cook met some of those early settlers in 1779, became embroiled in a dispute and was beaten to death. Out there in the Pacific, on the same latitude as Mexico City and Hong Kong, Hawaii is our southernmost state, our most remote neighbor.