One of my friends is an avid hiker and she coordinated a wahine hiking adventure to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for a group of us.

I packed my backpack with water, protein bars, a poncho, and of course, my trusty selfie stick.  At the insistence of one of the husbands, one of us even brought along a satellite phone in case we ran into an emergency and did not have cell service.  We were prepared for anything!

We started at the Kilauea Visitor Center and began hiking the Byron Ledge trail.

We walked the Byron Ledge trail until we could go no further due to the ongoing eruption and the corresponding trail closure.  We weren’t going to take any chances~we follow the rules and and hike safely. If the sign says stop, we stop.  The next part of the hike took us to Kilauea Iki Crater.

While we were on the Byron Ledge trail, we saw a few people here and there.  Once we got on the Kilauea Iki Crater hike, the population increased dramatically.  The crater hike is very popular!  There were lots of locals and tourists on this day enjoying the gorgeous weather in a beautiful and spiritual place.

As you might imagine with this group of ladies, there was much talk and laughter during the hike.  We talked about possible future adventures and a lot about food. We hiked at a pretty good clip and it was definitely not a leisurely stroll for us. We did stop here and there to take photos and get some sips of water. One of the most interesting stops had us yelling at the top of our lungs! Did you know there is a spot about halfway across the crater floor where if you yell toward a crater wall, the echo comes back clearly to you?  One of our friends knew about it and had our group of nine ladies test it out.  We interrupted the peace and quiet in the crater with a a self-affirming, “YOU’RE AWESOME!”

Our three-hour hike totaled approximately seven miles.  After the hike, we were ready for lunch, a little wine, and a lot of laughter.We went to our friend’s cabin which is right on the 14th tee of the golf course and had some delicious homemade Portuguese bean soup.   What a nice afternoon of friendship while enjoying the beauty that is the Big Island of Hawaii.  Living Hilo Style.