Читать книгу Hawaii Trails. Walks Strolls and Treks on the Big Island онлайн

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Appendices

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Large volcanic vent and cone with pit crater

Introduction

Can you name this place? On its west, vast fields of forbidding lava stretch from mountains nearly 14,000 feet high to a coast that’s dotted with shimmering blue bays and luxurious resorts. At its northern end, a remote valley, its steep walls richly clothed in rainforest greenery and streaked by waterfalls, protects a way of life that harkens back to the 1900s. On its east, Earth’s most active volcano destroys famous black-sand beaches and creates new ones just a few miles away. If you jumped into the roiling sea at its desolate southern tip—don’t do it!—you wouldn’t touch land again until you reached Antarctica. What can this contradictory place be? What else but the Big Island of Hawaii!

Some will say you can see the Big Island adequately from the air. Others will say you can drive around it and see everything in a day. Still others would park you in a resort and tell you that’s Hawaii. Don’t believe it! The best of the Big Island is outside, along the trails, where there are no barriers of metal, glass, or concrete to separate you from its lush rainforests, flower-filled parks, steaming volcanoes, and acres of lava “moonscapes.” You don’t have to walk far: a worthwhile hike on Hawaii can be as short as a quarter-mile stroll suitable for anyone who’s ambulatory, or it can be as long as a five-day backpack to the top of its second-highest peak, Mauna Loa.