Exploring Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu

by Donald B. MacGowan

The strange landscape of Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Graphic from Photo by Donald B MacGowan

There are many wondrous, enigmatic and fascinating attractions on the Big Island of Hawaii, some better known than others, many out of the way and generally off the beaten track. Tour Guide Hawaii has produced an encyclopedic collection of the most up-to-date information, presented as short GPS-cued videos, in an app downloadable to iPhone and iPod Touch that covers the entire Big Island, highlighting the popular and the uncrowded, the famous and the secluded, the adventurous and the relaxing.

Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu

Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, with the Halema'uma'u eruption and the summit of Mauna Loa in the background, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

At Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, flows from Mauna Ulu have crossed and re-crossed the roadway, causing it to need rebuilding a number of times. Notice the shiny glaze of the fresh lava surface, seeming impervious to the forces of nature. Yet nearby, in cracks where seeds lodge and water collects, ferns and lichens have begun to colonize these flows, some as recent as 1974.

Sunset at Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, with Mauna Ulu in the background Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

After ferns and lichens, o’hia and other woody plants come. Here at the Park, one can see the immense role water plays in the re-vegetation of the volcanic landscape. At Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, where it is relatively dry, re-vegetation is slow and may take half a millennium or more to cover a lava flow. Higher up, along Crater Rim Drive, you observe flows as young as a hundred years completely reclaimed by the voracious rain forest where water is abundant.

Basalt at Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu has a very shiny surface, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

Between 1969 and 1974 Mauna Ulu erupted almost 760 billion pounds of lava, covering an area of almost 17 square miles in an average depth of 25 feet.

Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu Sign, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

To see the new iPhone/iPod Touch App, please visit http://www.tourguidehawaii.com/iphone.html. The best of Tour Guide Hawaii’s free content about traveling to, and exploring, the Big island, can be found here.

760 billion pounds of lava at Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu erupted from Mauna Ulu Volcano in the background, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

For more information on traveling to Hawaii in general and on touring the Big Island in particular, please also visit www.tourguidehawaii.com and www.tourguidehawaii.blogspot.com.

All media copyright 2010 by Donald B. MacGowan. All rights reserved.

Mauna Loa from Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Graphic from Photo by Donald B MacGowan