Kona to Volcanoes with a Geologist's Company: Lunch at the Rim, Saddle Road Home

A small company founded by a geologist, which shows in what the day spends its time on. The guides are David, Grant and Kawika. The first stop is a 100% Kona coffee farm that has won awards for it, with access, a tour and a tasting. Punalu'u Black Sand Beach comes next, on the Ka'u coast between Pahala and Naalehu. The sand is jet black because the island keeps making it, coconut palms line the top of it, and Honu, Hawaiian green sea turtles, often haul out on the sand. Lunch is at the Rim Restaurant in the historic Volcano House, chosen from the menu, looking into the Kilauea caldera. Then the park: the whole Chain of Craters Road, summit to sea. The return is by Saddle Road, Route 200, 55 miles across the middle of the island, through all four of its climates. Tropical forest, dry desert, grassland, and fog at the top. Between miles 19 and 23 there are lava flows with young trees taking hold on them. Just past Saddlehouse Road the ridges mark where a 1936 flow finally stopped, two miles short, and near the road you can see the mounds lava leaves when it slows. Big Island Candies has been making its cookies and chocolates by hand for over 45 years, and there is a stop there, plus a drive through historic Hilo.