According to National Geographic.....

When National Geographic says that this is one of the 500 best road trips IN THE WORLD.......

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/big-island-hawaii-road-trip/

well.....how could we NOT? So, around 9am on Thursday morning we set out going south on Ali'i Drive (the avenue on which our resort sits, the closest road to the ocean)...it then becomes variously known as Mamalahoa Hwy, Hwy. 11, and Hawaii Belt Hwy, depending on which of the many maps we're looking at.  (First, a disclaimer: I did not take the photograph above!  Yeah, it had to have been taken by a photographer whose expertise far exceeds mine, whose camera was not purchased at WalMart and who was in a helicopter in an area-now blocked to car and pedestrian traffic-about 5 miles east of the furthest spot we were allowed to go.) 

That being said, for the majority of the trip on Thursday and Friday, we felt like we were driving through/hiking through a National Geographic special on PBS.  Once we left Kona we were in a decidely lovely and rural area with coffee berry farms extending for acres on either side of the two lane 'hiway'.  I put 'hiway' in quotes because it's actually just a very nice road.....without the weather extremes that we're accustomed to at home, we assume that the asphalt holds up rather well here.  The local TV news that we've watched originates from Honolulu and is full of images of 10 lane gridlock on typical interstates.....not so here and it's just so picturesque!  Drivers are courteous and no one seems to be in much of a hurry (insert that 'hang loose' hand gesture here).  We stopped to explore a local community called Captain Cook (read about it in Nat. Geo article) and heard a rooster crowing and saw his sweet family coming across the parking lot.......

 

The lush, beautiful, colorful, unique foilage lined the road.....occasionally we were several hundred yards from the water, and, at times, when the road rose in elevation, we were a few miles from the water.  Although we'd read about the green sand beach at the southernmost tip of the island, our agreement with Budget Rental did not include permission to go there, probably due to the nature of the road we'd have to take.  So we looked forward to the Black Sand Beach a little further on.  On the way there we made a delicious stop......

 

Our thinking was....we were gonna be doing a ton 'o hiking over the next two days, so some carbo-loading was definitely 'on the map'.  In reality, some good lean protein and lots of water would have served us well, but when you're driving right by a place renowned for its Portuguese sweetbread pudding, malasadas (like Mexican churros), and coconut turnovers......well, what would YOU do?

So, with happy taste buds and tummies (these sweets lived up to the many online reviews) and joe for the road, we walked around the extensive botanical garden on the property of this bakery....

a shrimp plant......and we'd always these guys came from the ocean!  who knew?

this cute little toddler pineapple is only about 5 inches tall.........

 

When we reached Punalu'u, just a few miles beyond the bakery, we ventured off to explore the famed Black Sand Beach.  This southeast portion of the island is where some of the huge cliffs of hardened lava rock meet the sea, as well as small beach areas and this begins the area most affected by the recent continuing eruptions of Kilauea.

We walked away from there with the appearance of coarsely ground pepper between our toes!  There's enough silica in the volcanic rock that when the sun hits the sand just right, it sparkles!

Many of the beaches have turtle 'basking areas' set aside and protected.

 

We continued east a few more miles, stopping whenever there was a 'scenic overlook' sign.  One of the things that impressed us at these overlooks was an almost 'deafening' quiet.  The traffic was very light anyway and the overlooks were pretty removed from the road.  Seldom are any of us anywhere for very long when we are this removed from sound of any kind.

 

In the early afternoon we arrived at Volcano Lodge on the outskirts of Volcanoes National Park.  Although not a B&B, you could definitely call this place unique in every wonderful sense of the word.....definitely not your typical overnite stop.......here's the sign that greeted us at the foot of the stairs that led to the office and breakfast room.......

 

so barefoot we went up beautifully carved, rustic yet smooth stairs to a beautiful breakfast room and nearby office where we were greeted (by name.....what? do we look like 'the searcys' or maybe were we the last guests to check in for the day?  either way, it sure was a welcoming touch) by the proprietors of this idyllic place and given our key and driving directions to the Nene bungalow.

 

About a mile away we found this lovely gem hidden in this equally lovely rainforest........

  After we settled in we returned to the small commercial area of Volcano, Hawaii and had lunch at the Ono Cafe of Volcano Garden Arts, where Ernest, the goat, provided tableside entertainment while we had delicious vegan fare.

 Then we headed to Volcanoes National Park, got our passport stamped and arrived just in time for an outstanding ranger-led talk by Ranger Travis, a 30-something Big Island native, who, in addition to sharing lots of very understandable geological information, was quick-witted, engaging and shared stories about how his family had to move when he was young in response to the flow patterns of the erupting Kilauea.  We then got information from another ranger on how to best use the rest of our afternoon and evening, knowing that we wanted to be there after dark to see what we could see.

 

We headed down the Chain of Craters Road (a 40 mile round trip) which passes several interesting viewing spots and active vents.  At the point where you can no loner drive, because, well......

 

the road is closed by a hardened lava flow, we parked and hiked toward the water and saw the 60 foot Holei Sea Arch.....

AMAZING, right?

 

Then, because it was still light, and we really thought this area would be some prime star-gazing real estate after dark, we hiked further and a kind stranger, seeing that we were attempting to use our gorilla tripod to do a delayed timed pic of ourselves, offered to help us out....

Once it was dark, and I mean there were no lights anywhere except for headlights, the skies were so full of stars.......okay, we know the skies are always full of stars, but we could actually SEE them!  It was amazing!  The drive back toward the visitor's center was surreal as we didn't meet any other cars, but a flurry of insects colliding with the windshield.  Two miles from the Visitor's Center is the Jagger Museum and the viewing area for the Kilaeua caldera......and it was there that we captured this (sorry, it's a bit blurry...it was an amazing sight......another dose of 'surreal').....

 

Then we pulled out our headlamps, made our way back to car and rolled on down the road to the Nene Bungalow for a good night's rest........and boy, were we going to need that rest!