Notes 99.03.14

Car trip from Hilo to HVNP

• Checkpoint #1: the corner of highways 19 and 11 in Hilo
• 7.5 miles later - Checkpoint #2: Keaau turnoff
  • 1.2: random lush, tall vegetation
  • highway becomes 2-lane
  • 1.5: residential strewn on both sides - powerlines on both sides
  • 3.3: brief, solid wall of strawberry guava on R, 15 m tall
  • 3.7: hedge on L with field of bananas behind it
  • 5.3: scattered pasture on R
  • 7.3: 1500' sign
  • 7.8: very tall Euc. groves on both sides, extending 50 m from the road
  • 8.2: understory of strawberry guava as Euc. continues
  • 9.0: Euc. augmented by very tall palms which previously were scattered
  • 9.4: 2000' sign, palms are gone, Euc. groves are fewer
  • 10.0: more strawberry guana hedges with Ohi'a - Uluhe dominant ground cover
  • 10.6: Euc. giant again - Uluhe continues
  • 11.0: Hapu'u joins the understory
  • 12.5: palms come back
  • 13.7: more of the same
  • 14.1: 2500' sign
  • 14.4: Euc. gone, Ohia/Hapu'u/Uluhe remain
  • Ohi'a is stunted and gnarled, top branches denuded
  • strawberry guava still scattered
  • 16.2: giant power lines on left end - cross to right and trail away
  • 16.6: 3000' sign
  • 16.8: vegetation very short - Uluhe dominates
  • 18.2: Ohi'a back up to 10 m
  • 18.6: 3500' sign
• 21.5: Checkpoint #3  - entrance to HVNP
  • 1.6: 4027 feet - Crest
• 2.3: Checkpoint #4: Mauna Loa Road
  • Forest is dry - ferns are gone
• on the Tree Mold loop: Ohi'a/Koa forest, single lane unmarked paved road
• on the drive back, over the crest - the grass comes back, and is wet and raining the minute we come over the crest

Chain of Craters Road

• start notes: driving up past 1,000' sign
• fresh 6 m Ohi'a in areas where road cuts through lava
• Checkpoint #1: 2000' sign
  • very shiny pahoehoe, scattered 1-4 m Ohi'a
  • mi. 1.0: pahoehoe stops - ground cover 1m brush
  • mi. 1.3: medium dense Ohi'a to 6 m + brush
  • mi. 1.8: pahoehoe again, no plants
  • entire chain-of-craters road: no margin at all, white line abuts gravel
  • 3.5: p-hoe ends
  • medium-dense Ohi'a to 7 m, no brush
• 5.3: 3000' line, checkpoint #2
  • some Ohi'a to 8 m
  • 0.5: the 1969 flow
  • 0.7 Ohi'a again, some undergrowth
  • 1.25: Pauuhi Crater
  • 1.5: Ohi'a to 9 m
  • 1.8: Ohi'a to 7 m
  • 2.1: large brown grass patches, Uluhe in dense but separate patches
  • 2.5: continuous Uluhe, Ohi'a to 12 m
  • 3.0: Ko'oko'olau crater
  • 3.8: patch of Koa on R
  • 4.1: 1974 flow
  • 4.2: Ohi'a 12 m again
  • still no Hapu'u!
• 4.6 turned R onto Crater Rim Drive, checkpoint #3
  • 0.2: serious Uluhe
  • 0.4: major Hapu'u understory, Ohi'a to 14 m
  • 0.9: uluhe comes and goes in patches
  • 1.4: Thurston Lava Tube
  • 3.3: park exit - full 3-leayer forest all the way