Lava Tree State Park

Do you like Aroids? This is the place for you.



















The lush is up in the sky for the most part.



At ground-level, everything is cut back away from a concrete path,



with rest spots along the way. Perfect for your 85-year-old father-in-law.



Or even for you, depending.









I don't know the names of all these bladed trees.



Is this a screw pine? Genus Pandanus?





I don't know the names of any of my beloved tree ferns, either. That will have to wait until after grad school. Or something.



ANYWAY, the place is called Lava Trees State Park for a reason. There are lava "trees", that look like this:







A lava tree would be a great display feature for your collection of mosses, bromeliads, and epiphytes, amirite? I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures of the lava trees. Or, at least, that I got so few that are usable.

Anyway, so we did that. Then we drove through Pahoa Village and most of what is publicly available to drive through in Puna (the Big Island's western tip region), including, in fact mostly, dirt roads. It was a driving tour with some photography pit stops.





It was a gray day (but warm), as I imagine it must be over here in the cloud forest. You saw all those ferns and aroids. They don't grow like that on the Kona side.

I have never gone paddle-boarding before, have you? It's something I very much want to try. I hear that it's easy, but also works your abs.



Never turn your back on the ocean.




Or you could end up in the cemetery I saw down the road.



Well, probably not. But you know what I mean.