Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

Hawai’i Volcanoes is a special place for us. From our home on O’ahu, it is the most accessible National Park. That said, we don’t live on the same island, so we still have to fly to Hawai’i Island, reserve a rental car, book a hotel, and dedicate some time to the park. Even so, on some occasions we just fly over for a quick visit — especially when the lava is flowing!

In 2020 and 2021, we made it to Hawai’i Volcanoes on three occasions, and each trip was special in it’s own way. We were supposed to begin part one of our Park-to-Park Tour in Denver in July of 2020, but we were forced to cancel because of the pandemic. In lieu of that, we devised a trip within the Hawaiian island that would include as many NPS sites as possible. This kicked off with our 2020 trip to Hawai’i Volcanoes, which was a once in a lifetime experience — to say the least.

In June and July of that year, Hawaii’s Covid cases were very low (we even had a few days with no cases in the entire state). Even though we all knew relatively little about the virus at that time, we felt comfortable traveling to another island — as long as we were cautious and respectful. That meant planning almost exclusively outdoor activities and wearing masks at all times except when we were alone and outdoors.

At that time, the National Park was open, but almost all of the facilities were not. The visitor center and gift shop were closed, as was the Volcano House, the National Park Lodge located inside the park. We stayed in a small inn in the adjacent town of Volcano and ventured into the park on consecutive four days.

On one particular day, we pulled into an empty visitors center parking lot, left for hike that took about six hours, and returned to an empty visitors center parking lot. And when we say “empty,” we mean that our car was literally the only car there.

On this trip, we stretched out our legs on a number of hikes. Near the caldera we linked together a handful of popular hikes to create a loop from Volcano House and back. We departed on Halema’uma’u Trail onto the caldera floor, up to Byron Ledge Trail, past the Devastation Trail intersection, out and around on Crater Rim Trail along the top of Kilauea Iki Crater, and returned to Volcano House via Byron Ledge, the caldera floor, and Halema’uma’u (8.3 miles & 1,500’). This was an epic hike covering trails that are usually packed with tourists. We saw 3-4 people in total. We also found “Pele’s tears” (tear-dropped shaped lava glass) on the trail and spotted scores of native birds.

The next day, we drove down Chain of Craters Road. In a trip bout 15 years ago, at the bottom of Chain of Craters, we were able to hiked out onto the lava fields to find active eruption points. Today, the eruption was quiet. In fact, after more than three decades of constant eruption, no lava had flowed inside the park since a major eruption in the East Rift Zone (outside the park) in 2018.

Driving down, we took time to stop at all the craters along the road, admiring the history of each one. At the bottom, we marveled at the massive expanse of lava as the new earth meets the sea. Along the shore, we stopped at the Holei Sea Arch, watched sea birds nesting in the cliffs, and took a stroll down the new “escape road,” which was plowed through the lava during the 2018 eruption. We also spent some time (alone again) at the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs — which takes a short hike to a boardwalk. Back up top, we ventured out on an evening hike to Pu’u Huluhulu via the Napau Trail (3.1 miles & 300’).

The following day, we took on an epic hike that is not well known to most visitors, but certainly worth the time and effort. The Mauna Iki Trail departs Hilina Pali Road just past Kulanaokuaiki Campground. After about 3.5 miles walking across a barren desert wasteland of a’a and pahoehoe (two types of lava flows) you reach two pit craters. The craters aren’t named, but sit about half a mile from Pu’ukoa’e, which is what most people call the hike. Pu’u means “hill” or “cinder cone” and koa’e are the white tropic birds that nest in the area.

We stared into the craters — ~500’ in diameter and more than 500’ deep — watching the koa’e dance on air and land on the craters’ inner cliff faces. We also summitted a nearby pu’u that also had a deep crater in the middle of it.

We saw precisely zero other people on the hike (7.1 miles & 700’) and were grateful to share the experience with the birds and the Ka’u Desert. The highlight was the prevalence of “Pele’s hair” (very thin strands of lava glass) in every nook and cranny of the rock formations along the way — so much Pele’s hair that it almost became passé, but not quite.

Pele’s hair (Yes, that’s volcanic glass!)

We finished our adventure on the final day with a short loop hike on the Kipuka Puaulu Trail. A birdwatchers paradise, we spent most of the time looking up with binoculars searching out ‘i‘iwi, amakihi, ‘oma‘oma‘o, and other native birds amongst the huge native ‘ohi‘a forest section that had been saved from destruction by previous eruptions of Mauna Loa.

From there we continued around the island, briefly visiting the Kahuku section of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, as well as the four other NPS sites on Hawai’i Island. Our next stop was Maui and a visit to Haleakala, which we found to be not nearly as open to visitors as Hawai’i Volcanoes was.

Moving to 2021, we were lucky to take two more trips to Hawai’i Volcanoes — both spurred by eruptions inside the Kilauea Caldera.

In February, we booked two nights in Volcano House, in a “crater view” room so that we could see the glow of the caldera at night from our beds. This trip did not disappoint. We experienced the eruption from many different angles. Though we weren’t able to see molten lava on the floor of Halema’uma’u crater, we could still see and feel Pele’s presence through the smoke and the orange glow.

We recreated part of our caldera hike from summer 2020. From Volcano House we followed the same route down Halema’uma’u Trail to the caldera floor and up Byron Ledge. However this time, we ventured down into Kilauea Iki crater, across the floor and up the opposite side, looping back on Crater Rim Trail, all the way back to Volcano House via Waldron Ledge (6.8 miles & 1,300’). This journey allowed us to hit most of the trails that we had missed in 2020, while revisiting some of our favorite spots.

That night after dinner and after dark, we headed back out onto Waldron Ledge to a viewpoint that isn’t often used at night. From here, we had a unique view of Halema’uma’u Crater as Pele spit out steam and the glow of lava. The next morning, we strolled around the Ha’akulamanu Sulfer Banks — a gorgeous hike in the morning’s soft light (2.0 miles & 200’). Finally, we headed to the Devastation Trail parking lot to walk down a closed-to-traffic portion of Crater Rim Road. After about a mile, near the Kanakako’i Overlook, we diverted out toward the edge of the caldera where we got as close as possible to the eruption. It was quite surreal.

Our third trip to Hawai’i Volcanoes was even shorter. The eruption that we went to view in February had ceased. But by October, Madam Pele was back at it. This time the eruption was bigger and the surface level of the lava lake inside Halema’uma’u Crater was much higher. So, we booked one night at the Volcano House in a crater view room, and we flew over for 24 hours in the park.

This was a special trip. We watched sunset from Kilauea Lookout — a spot that has been closed during our 2020 visit. As the sun went down, the crater began to light up. From our angle we couldn’t see the main vent that was spewing lava, but just after sunset a small lava vent on the opposite side of the crater opened and we were treated to a flaming orange eruption from our vantage point.

After 9pm — when the traffic died down — we went back out near Keanakako’i (1.8 miles & 200’) to see the large lava vent. It was spectacular. Like nothing we’d seen before, bright orange and glowing. The lava lake was also visible at night, with glowing orange cracks defining its surface. Truly a magical experience.

The next day, we hiked through Thurston Lava tube, which had been closed on both previous visits. Then we proceeded back to Keanakako’i, this time adding on the Devastation Trail from Pu’u Pia (2.9 miles & 300’) so that we could see the same view of the vent, but this time in daylight.

It was a fast and furious visit, but well worth the effort. Next trip to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park will be soon. We still have a lot of the back country to explore, and we never get tired of our old favorites.

Perhaps the best thing about this park is that is constantly evolving and changing. The land is alive, and we love being there to witness it.

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