"Big Island - an island in the making" Hawaii (Big Island) by San_Diego_Evita

A day before leaving Hawaii, I just had to peak inside a volcano. We chartered a small plane. The pilot was cautious and this is as close as we could get to the red hot lava (2200 degrees Fahrenheit).

Pu'u O'o vent

There's something magical about a smoking mountain cone. It seems alive. It doesn't smell too nice up close, though (sulphuric acid). We drove from Hilo to Kona for hours without seeing a single blade of green grass -- just lava, lava, and more lava. This island is not finished yet, but a new one is about to poke its head out of the ocean in a few hundred years. As the earth crust glides over this hot spot, the Hawaiian chain is being constructed, one island at a time.

a very tall waterfall

The northern shore of the Big Island is green and lusciuos. This waterfaww measures over 1000 ft and can be seen only from the air.

• Pros:Great if you're into volcanos
• Cons:Not as pretty as Kauai, bet I may be biased
• In a nutshell:Come once