Hiking in Hawaii--Part IV

I'm sorry for all of the hiking posts. I'm just trying to play catch up. We do things other than hike, but I don't often take the camera with me, thus I don't have pictures of too many other activities. I'll try and do better. In the meantime, let me share two other hikes with you.

The first picture comes from our most recent hike, two days ago. Zac, Tyson and I hiked up Mariner's Ridge. This hike is probably the closest to our home. The views were, once again, stunning and the breezes blowing around felt wonderful. On the way back, I found my second wind and raced Tyson down to the bottom. He won.

Here's Tyson courageously posing atop a ledge:

The other hike I wanted to blog about was actually taken the beginning of October. The trail is Makapu'u Point. Two trails diverge near the beginning, one trail paved and leading to the top of the point close to the lighthouse, and the other down toward a neat rock formation called Pelee's Chair. This Sunday afternoon we chose the lower trail down to the chair.

Pelee's Chair:

From there we began to climb along the rocks and wind our way around the base of Makapu'u Point. I'm pretty sure it's not part of any trail, in particular, but that didn't stop us. I was fondly reminded of how my sisters and I used to love to climb over boulders and rocks as children--so much fun!

The waves were crashing close nearby. We were careful to keep a safe distance to avoid being washed over the edge, but one wave caught Tyson and I off guard. We weren't washed away, but, well, just look what happened:

A little while later we came across another interesting rock formation; we're guessing it is the remains of a lava flow. We have to check with our favorite geologist to know if we're correct, but we assume that the circular rings in the rocks were made from lava flowing through a tube of some sort, and instead of an empty tube remaining the actual hardened lava flow from inside the tube can be seen. Realize this is all amateur conjecture, but it's interesting all the same. One of the pictures includes people (me and Zac) to help grasp the scale and size of this amazing geological feature.

The end of our hike we found a great view of the lighthouse on Makapu'u Point. Also, a few intriguing blow holes caught our attention; the rumble and mist seriously looked and sounded like a dragon, and come to find out the area is actually nicknamed, "dragon's nostrils."

But, have faith in me, we did not hike all the way back around to reach our car (would've taken hours); we hiked straight up the side of the hill to the paved lighthouse path and luxuriously walked down to the parking lot. Once home, we were greeted with a gorgeous sunset. Lucky for me, Zac snapped a picture.

What a way to end our day!