Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Kilauea volcano lies at the center of activity in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The unassuming bump on Mauna Loa's southeast flank would be easily…
Must-see attractions in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
The original Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook off Crater Rim Dr was closed in 2008 due to volcanic activity and the very real threat of death. For the next decade,…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
The gentle, 1.3-mile round-trip to Puʻu Loa (roughly, 'hill of long life') leads to one of Hawaiʻi's largest concentrations of ancient petroglyphs, some…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
When 'Little Kilauea' burst open in a fiery inferno in November 1959, it filled the crater with a roiling lake of molten rock fed by a 1900ft fountain…
Kilauea Visitor Center & Museum
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Stop here first on your visit to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Extraordinarily helpful (and remarkably patient) rangers and volunteers can advise you…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
The world's largest subaerial (above water) volcano, Mauna Loa (Long Mountain) is so massive that you feel its presence more than see it. Even when it…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
On Kilauea's eastern side, Crater Rim Dr passes through a rainforest thick with tree ferns and ohia trees to the overflowing parking lot for ever-popular…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A wooden boardwalk weaves between misty, rocky vents stained chartreuse, yellow, orange and other psychedelic colors by tons of sulfur-infused steam…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A short, 0.8-mile walk down the Mauna Iki trail from the Kaʻu Desert trailhead on Hwy 11 brings you to a field of scattered footprints preserved in…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
In 1969, eruptions from Kilauea's East Rift Zone began building a new lava shield, Mauna Ulu (Growing Mountain). By the time the flow stopped in 1974, it…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
This serenely beautiful overlook looms 1700ft above the coastal flats of Hilina Slump: a semidetached landmass sinking 4in each year, and which may be…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Michael and Misato Mortara form hot glass into sculptures and vessels as complex and beautiful as the Big Island. Visit in the morning, or just after…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Puʻu ʻOʻo vent saw the longest-lasting and most voluminous of the Kilauea's eruptions, oozing an estimated 80 to 160 million gallons of lava per day, or…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
There's plenty packed into this small one-room geology museum including real-time seismographs and tiltmeters recording earthquakes inside the park (and…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Although the Kilauea rain shadow keeps this area relatively dry, it's not a true desert; but what rain does fall is highly acidic from the upwind…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Sort of. The road ends where the lava says it ends, having consumed this coastal section of Chain of Craters Road repeatedly since 1969. Currently there…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A narrow, winding and potholed drive along lonely Mauna Loa Rd passes heavily forested kipuka (volcanic oases) as you come ever closer to the world's most…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Ancient Hawaiians used pulu, the golden, silky fibers found at the base of hapuʻu (tree fern) fiddleheads, to dress wounds and embalm the dead. In the…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Near the Kilauea Visitor Center, this sharp local art gallery spotlights museum-quality pottery, paintings, woodwork, sculpture, jewelry, Hawaiian quilts…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Creating impressive billowing plumes in the cool early morning, these vents make a convenient drive-up photo op. Hot rocks below the surface boil…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
The once-awesome ʻAlae crater did not go easily. The Mauna Ulu eruption had just filled the 1440ft-wide and 540ft-deep crater with a lake of molten lava…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
About halfway along Chain of Craters Road is this coastal lookout (elevation 2000ft), with picnic tables and commanding views. That inky black snake's…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
On the edge of an old-grown ohia forest, this campus of the main Volcano Art Center gallery in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park showcases spillover and…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Do your Big Island art shopping at this gallery and studio in the fern forest. Walls and tables overflow with paintings, handicrafts and jewelry produced…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A pause-worthy panorama that was closed at time of research with an expected reopening date in 2020. It's most remarkable for the 6-ton volcanic bomb…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Constantly brutalized by unrelenting surf, the coastal section of Chain of Craters Road has sharply eroded lava-rock pali (cliffs). Visible from near the…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Near the start of Mauna Loa Rd, there's a turnoff to some neglected lava tree molds – deep wells that formed when lava flows engulfed the rainforest and…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Pu'u Pua'i (Gushing Hill) formed when cinder and ash spewing from the 1959 Kilauea Iki fountain was carried southwest on the wind, piling on the rim and…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Perhaps recognizing that grapes from Mauna Loa's volcanic soil may never erupt onto the world stage on their own merits, this winery creates some very…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Drop in to this touristy showroom for a visual and olfactory feast of floral hybrids. Although we cannot confirm whether theirs is indeed the world's…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
This jaw-dropping, mile-long crater is the largest in the East Rift Zone. Although once accessible by road, it's now 5 miles along the Napau Crater Trail,…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A deep pit crater on the northeast edge of Mauna Loa's summit caldera. The crater collapsed inward when lava left the summit.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A prominent, semicollapsed volcanic crater along the Mauna Iki Trail.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
True to their name, these dual yawning craters are just west of Cone Crater on the Mauna Iki Trail.
