Beyond the Holei Pali turn out and just past Mile Marker 15, in the southeast side of the road, a good-sized lava tube may be seen in the road cut; there is a parking turnout just past the tube entrance. With care and a bike helmet, the tube can be explored for nearly 30 meters, until breakdown pinches it out. This tube has numerous skylights, so a flashlight is not absolutely necessary, but it is recommended. Unless recent breakdown has now blocked it, with wriggling, skinny or determined people can make it to a small portal with a view into the large fern grotto; this is your turn-around spot. Please do not force your way into the grotto as it will kill the plants and destroy the miniature ecosystem that has grasped a wee toehold here. Besides which, the grotto is populated by numerous wasp nests. A walk to the top of the hill which overlies the tube entrance brings one to the skylights along the cave, and wonderful glimpses down into the fern paradise that grows within. Remember that lava tube skylights are collapse features and do not approach the edges too closely; they are unstable and unsafe.
Video written and produced by Donald B. MacGowan; videography by Frank Burgess and Donald MacGowan; Narrated by Frank Burgess, Original music written and performed by Donnie MacGowan. For more information about traveling the Big Island in general and Island Activities in particular, visit www.tourguidehawaii.com and www.lovingthebigisland.wordpress.com.
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