G.R.I.T.S. in Paradise: Steam, Silence, and Song

We’ve had several guests visiting us from the mainland and beyond recently, so we’ve been doing a lot of exploring on the Big Island. Here’s a video I made of our walk through Volcano National Park’s Steam Vents Trail. It’s so peaceful and yet so eerie there, and I think the video shows that.

What the video can’t show is the heavy-feeling air that seems to stick in your throat; or the sulfur-smelling steam that billows up from bottomless fissures in the cracked-open ground; or the ghostly shreds of steam that rise up from seemingly solid ground tinged yellow by sulfur deposits.

We used the free Merlin Bird ID app to try to identify the birds singing in the video, but the app claims to only recognize about half of the birds in Hawaii. The Common Waxbill’s song was the only one the app picked up on. Oh well. I’m curious, but I guess I’ll have to live with my unsatisfied curiosity.

Please feel free to share! :)

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