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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,
www.tourguidehawaii.blogspot.com and
www.lovingthebigisland.wordpress.com.
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