Photo: USGS/M. Zoeller, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Few places let you watch the ground being made. Kīlauea has been erupting in episodes at its summit, sending up lava fountains that light the caldera at night, while the older flows around it hold rainforest, steaming cracks and a lava lake you can walk across. This is also a sacred landscape, home of Pele in Hawaiian tradition, so stay on trails, leave rocks where they lie and don't stack new ones. Give it two days: one for the summit, one for the long drive down Chain of Craters Road to the sea. Eruption activity changes week to week, so check the park's updates the morning you go.
TRAILS
1 OF 8
Kīlauea Iki Trail
Difficulty
Moderate
Length
3.3 mi loop
Elevation gain
400 ft
Kīlauea Summit · Kīlauea Iki Overlook — The park's best day hike. You drop through a rainforest of tree ferns, then walk across the hardened floor of a crater that held a lake of molten lava in 1959, with steam still rising from the cracks. The far wall is the cinder cone where fountains once shot hundreds of feet high. Parking at the overlook fills early, so start from the visitor center or Devastation Trail lot if needed.
⚠︎ Summit trails can close quickly during eruption episodes because of falling tephra and volcanic gas.
Photo: Aleksomber, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
2 OF 8
Summit eruption overlooks
Difficulty
Easy
Length
Short walks
Elevation gain
Mostly flat
Kīlauea Summit · caldera rim — When Kīlauea is erupting, this is the reason you came. The park opens viewing areas along the caldera rim, such as Uēkahuna, Kīlauea Overlook and Keanakākoʻi, some steps from a parking lot and others a walk along the Crater Rim Trail. Come back after dark, when the glow over Halemaʻumaʻu is strongest. Dress warm; the rim is cold and windy at night.
⚠︎ Viewing areas change with each eruption episode. Check nps.gov/havo and stay out of closed areas.
Photo: USGS/M. Patrick, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
3 OF 8
Nāhuku (Thurston Lava Tube)
Difficulty
Easy
Length
1.5 mi
Elevation gain
Mostly gentle
Kīlauea Summit · Kīlauea Iki Overlook — A short walk through dripping rainforest to a lava tube about 500 years old, where a river of lava once drained underground. The lit section is tall enough to walk upright, and native birds call from the tree ferns at the entrance. Go early or late to beat the tour buses. It links easily with the Kīlauea Iki Trail.
Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
4 OF 8
Devastation Trail
Difficulty
Easy
Length
1 mi
Elevation gain
Mostly flat
Kīlauea Summit · Devastation Trail parking — A paved path across a field of cinders that rained down during the 1959 eruption, with the cone of Puʻupuaʻi rising beside it. Bleached tree snags stand next to young ʻōhiʻa trees, so you can see a forest growing back in real time. It is wheelchair friendly, though a few stretches are steep.
Photo: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes NPS, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
5 OF 8
Puʻuloa Petroglyphs
Difficulty
Easy
Length
1.4 mi
Elevation gain
Mostly flat
Chain of Craters Road · Puʻuloa trailhead — A walk over smooth lava to Hawaiʻi's largest petroglyph field, with more than 23,000 images carved into the rock over hundreds of years. Many are small cupules where families placed a newborn's piko (umbilical cord) for a long life. This is a sacred place: stay on the boardwalk and never touch, trace or rub the carvings. Bring water and sun protection; there is no shade.
Photo: Wmpearl, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
6 OF 8
Maunaulu and Puʻuhuluhulu
Difficulty
Moderate
Length
2.5 mi
Elevation gain
210 ft
Chain of Craters Road · Maunaulu parking — Walk out the Nāpau Trail over lava from the 1969 to 1974 Maunaulu eruption, past lava trees and deep cracks, then climb the forested cinder cone of Puʻuhuluhulu. From the top you look into the Maunaulu crater and, on clear days, up to Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. It is quieter than the summit trails and gives a real sense of how big these flows are.
Photo: Navin75, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
7 OF 8
Haʻakulamanu (Sulphur Banks)
Difficulty
Easy
Length
1.2 mi
Elevation gain
Mostly flat
Kīlauea Summit · Kīlauea Visitor Center — A boardwalk loop from the visitor center past yellow sulfur crystals, bleached rock and steaming vents, then on to the Steam Vents along the caldera rim. The new boardwalk makes it an easy, accessible walk for most groups. The smell of rotten eggs is part of the experience.
⚠︎ Volcanic gas here can affect people with heart or breathing problems, pregnant women, infants and young children.
Photo: Phil Whitehouse from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
8 OF 8
Hōlei Sea Arch
Difficulty
Easy
Length
Under 0.5 mi
Elevation gain
Flat
Chain of Craters Road · end of the road — At the bottom of Chain of Craters Road, a short walk leads to a lava arch standing off tall black sea cliffs. The road itself is the real trip: 18.8 miles past pit craters and lava flows, dropping from the rainforest to the coast. Stop at the pullouts on the way down, and stay well back from the cliff edge, which can collapse without warning.
Photo: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Plan your Hawaiʻi Volcanoes trip
The Nova Bound app builds the whole trip around these trails: where to stay, where to charge, and what to see each day. Coming soon to the App Store.
Distances are round trip unless noted, from NPS.gov and rounded. Trails, permits and road openings change; always check nps.gov before you go. Trail write-ups by Nova Bound.