Hilo | R. Doug Wicker

Port 1 Hilo — Rainbow Falls and Volcanoes National Park

Kilauea Caldera

Our next stop on Ricky’s tour bus was Rainbow Falls, aptly named depending on how the sunlight hits the spray rising from the Wailuku River.

Wailuku River

The falls are quite the sight, and it’s very fun composing shots highlighting only certain aspects of the falling water.

Rainbow Falls

Still, the complete falls are themselves fun to capture, especially in portrait orientation.

Rainbow Falls

Check around the area for some beautiful flora, as well.

Rainbow Falls flora

A little over an hour later we entered Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Here I let my inner Ansel Adams take over with a red-filtered (see: Black & White Photography—It’s All in the Color!) black-and-white panorama of the nearby area. Below is a photo of the ranchlands and scrub beneath a cloud-shrouded Mauna Loa:

Volcanoes National Park

Just beyond this ranchland we entered the national park overlook of the awesome and somewhat frightening Kilauea Caldera.

Volcanos National Park

What’s so frightening about the Kilauea Caldera? Take a look, and note the lack of vegetation and the smoke rising into the air.

Kilauea Caldera

We’ll be taking a closer (zoomed) view of the caldera on Monday. Until then, here are two more images from the park:

Kilauea Caldera

Volcanoes National Park

Port 1 Hilo — Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

The Crown Princess left Los Angeles on October 17, 2015. Aboard with Ursula and me were our good friends from Houston, Al and Lisa Fittipaldi. You may remember Lisa and Al from our adventures together on another cruise we did together just last year. That one was to Alaska, and you can read up on Lisa and Al here: The Norwegian Sun Docks in Ketchikan.

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

We arrived five days later at our first port of call, Hilo, on the island of Hawai’i. From here Ursula and I boarded a van from Ricky’s Tours for a little sightseeing trip around the Big Island. First stop was Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens in Hilo. Queen Lili’uokalani donated the land upon which the park sits, and thus the park bears her name.

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

As you can see from the pictures, the gardens at Lili’uokalani Park are of the Japanese style. As such, brightly colored flowers are not used. Rather, the gardens concentrate on landscaping, creative trimming and shaping, water features, and Japanese-inspired structural details.