Daily Bruin Abroad: Hawaii
By Alyssa Dorn
Sept. 17, 2015 10:26 p.m.
Near Hilo on Hawaii’s eastern coast, Rainbow Falls, 80 feet tall and 100 feet in diameter, descends into a pool surrounded by tropical rainforest and backed by a cave. The waterfall got its name from the tendency of a rainbow to form in the mist around 10 a.m. on sunny days.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
A walkable lava tube is lit for convenience and safety, the light bounces off the red and yellow walls. Lava tubes form when the outer layer of a lava flow moves more slowly, cooling and hardening while the inside is still molten and flows through the tube.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
The sun shines through leaves of a ti plant along the trail to Akaka Falls, a 442-foot tall waterfall.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
Below the tree-studded cliffs surrounding it is the Kilauea caldera in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, so large that it was surprising to us when we first noticed that there were people down there walking the caldera trail on the hard rock surface between actively steaming vents. In the background the more active part of the volcano, above the rim and in a smaller caldera of its own, smokes.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
A green sea turtle rests in the sun on black sand beach, one of the few black sand beaches of this type, made when lava hits the ocean and the temperature difference causes the lava to shatter into tiny particles.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
Waves crash against lava rocks and cement breakwaters designed to dissipate wave energy at Laupāhoehoe Point.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
A tourist jumps off the 40-foot cliff at South Point, the southernmost point in the United States.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
Another one of Mauna Kea’s observatories, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, is the second largest dedicated infrared telescope in the world. Another telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope, is highly controversial in Hawaii in that it is to be added to the observatories atop Mauna Kea, considered a sacred mountain to native Hawaiians. The day after our trip up the mountain, protesters blocked the road with rocks so that neither construction crews nor tourists could get past to the summit.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
The sunset makes the clouds look almost like the ocean on top of Mauna Kea, at 13,796 feet above sea level is the highest peak in Hawaii. The dormant volcano is home to 12 observatories, including the Subaru Telescope, along with the submillimeter array visible on the lower left. After sunset, the temperature dropped drastically and we left down the steep dirt road for the visitor center, where we enjoyed a star gazing program.
(Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
At night, the glow from the Halemaumau Crater in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is easily visible, along with an abundance of stars through the smoke of the burning rock in the lava lake inside the crater. Unfortunately, during my visit there was no flowing lava on the island.
