The Pu'u Wa'awa'a Hike

We just got back from Hawaii yesterday and had the best time there! Things started to get busy last Tuesday with day trips and wedding festivities so I decided to wait until we got back to blog about our adventures. Tuesday we had a couple things happening...first we hiked the cinder cone and then it was on to Jess's parent's house for a pre-wedding party (more on that later as it was super). A bunch of us got up on Tuesday, filled our packs with water and lunch and headed out to hike a cinder cone at one of the state parks about 45 minutes from the resort. A cinder cone is basically formed by a volcanic vent that when exploding the magma cools quickly forming these bubble hills, and the island has several of them. It was a clear and gorgeous day...perfect for a hike in the heat! My personal photographer (TJ) grabbed his Nikon and got some good pictures of our time there...here is a good one.




It should be noted that even though the cone looks small it isn't...it was very steep and a fantastic workout! Here are a few of us making our way up some steep parts.

We were basically all alone up there besides some cows and these really cute goats!

TJ took some great photos of the views as we went up and then again from the top!

In this one you can see Maui in the background. Its pretty close, but sometimes there is fog from the volcano and you can't always see it. On this day we got lucky!

TJ and I made it to the top along with the others...we were hot, stinky, and sweaty! But, what a view!

There are all these random trees and bush's everywhere...and apparently they went up before and it was more lush with greenery in the spring...not this time. But I love this photo of TJ's buddy near one of the tree's.

We had our lunch snack, took in the views, and then took a victory photo of the group. Here we are!

What goes up must come down. I think someone said we hiked up and down in an hour and a half or so...it was a great workout and we covered something like nine miles. And we were happy to make it down. This is the bride-to-be and my we did it photo...and she looks far more energetic than me!

It was super fun and a great way to get some sun! Thanks J and J for taking us!

Aloha.