Spotlight's Big Island Gold Magazine

The districts of Puna and Ka‘u are volcano country, and everyone lives with a history of eruptions in their backyards. Volcano Village and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park are only a 40-minute drive on Highway 11 from Hilo’s airport.

Unparalleled in its geologic grandeur, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is a beautiful natural wonder that really should not be missed. The park’s numerous facilities, informative displays and miles of hiking trails allow visitors to learn about and actually get fairly close to Kilauea, the world’s most active volcano. The park’s 230,000 acres range from sea level to the summit of Mauna Loa, the world’s most massive volcano, at 13,677 feet.

Kilauea Caldera, at the park’s heart, is steeped in legend and lore. Kïlauea is the home of the Hawaiian goddess Madame Pele, one of the most revered, and feared, gods in the Hawaiian pantheon. Hawaiians have worshipped here for centuries in an attempt to appease Madame Pele and her fiery wrath. To this day, in fact, Hawaiians regularly make offerings at the crater’s edge.

Within the park, the Volcano House — Hawai‘i’s oldest hotel — offers hotel-style living with a lobby and a restaurant looking over an active crater two miles wide and 400 feet deep. Camping sites and cabins are in the park, and food stores and eateries are nearby in Volcano Village. This National Park deserves days to explore its nature trails and museum displays and to take interpretive walks to calderas, firepits and lava tubes.

Kilauea Volcano’s lava has covered a stunning 16,000 plus acres of land and tropical forests and has been doing so for the past 25 years. It’s first eruption began on January 3, 1983, and has provided the world and researchers alike with spectacular displays of molten lava and valuable information.

An active volcano, Kilauea is anything but explosive. It’s really just a set of leaky pipes with lava oozing and bubbling from its weak seams all over the Puna and Ka‘u districts. Though moving slowly with plenty of time for people to get out of the way, lava took out the town of Kalapana in recent years, destroying sections of the Chain of Craters Road in the park before reaching the ocean.

Depending on current volcanic activity, you may see the glow of lava in Halema‘uma‘u Crater in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park or possibly view lava flowing into the ocean from the Kalapana viewing area at the end of Highway 130, which is not accessible from the park.

To find out which roads and hiking trails are open, check in with Kilauea Visitor Center, where you can see films on the geology of Hawai‘i and recent eruptions. Also, be sure to talk to the rangers about the best places to view wildlife. There are many endangered species living in the park.

Uekahuna Bluff has an excellent view of Kilauea Caldera, which last erupted in 1982. Along this bluff is Hawai‘i Volcano Observatory, where you can see seismic recorders that are ready to pick up movement in the earth and look into Halema‘uma‘u Crater. You can view these instruments from a window next door in the Jaggar Museum where you can learn about the different kinds of lava: the ’a’a, which moves slowly in rough chunks, and the pahoehoe, which runs more quickly, giving it a smooth surface.