For many hikers, a "bucket list" or "life list" just wouldn't be complete unless it included a rim to rim hike across the Grand Canyon. I was fortunate enough to do just that over the Memorial Day weekend in 1996 with three fellow hikers.
On Kilauea's eastern side, Cavity Rim Dr goes through rainforest kipuka (desert gardens) thick with tree greeneries and ohia trees. A regularly flooding parking area is the entrance point for the ever-well known Thurston Magma Tube. All the visit transports stop here and it's a most loved with children, so plan to come early or late in the day. A 0.3-mile circle walk begins in ohia backwoods loaded with birdsong before heading underground through a colossal magma tube that is misleadingly lit.