Day 5 - Volcanoes National Park, Orchid Gardens, Mauna Kea

We started with a VNP Visitors Center Introduction with a park ranger and then we walked to the Volcano House to see the crater. He talked about the 5 different volcanoes that make up the Big Island of Hawaii.

The crater is behind my head. 

Students taking pictures of the crater. 

A view of the crater from the Volcano House. 

Here is the Sulfer Banks. Look carefully and you can see yellow = Sulfer. 

Down the mountain we stopped at the Akatsuka Orchid Gardens. Beautiful orchids everywhere!!  I seriously thought about buying a grow your own at home hit, but decided it was going to be too much work.  but they were gorgeous!.

 

Star gazing atop Mauna Kea has been a complete wash the last two years. We thought it was going to be this year, but the sky's cleared and there was a new moon. The view was spectacular!!! There were so many stars I lost sight of the main constalations like the dipper. I'm not sure which one I saw. 

Here is one of the telescopes. 

We were above the cloud line. Here is a tiny glimpse at the sunset.