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Plan a Road Trip > Explore America > National Parks > Hawaii Volcanoes National Park |
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Highway 11, PO Box 52, Hawaii National Park, HI 96718
Phone: 808-985-6000
Fax: 808-967-8186
Open All Year
Overview.0 Kilauea Volcano has been erupting continuously since 1983, and geologists theorize the current eruption could last many more years. People throng here to witness the fiery stream of lava as it makes its way to the Pacific. This eruption, the island's most voluminous in recorded history, spews out 250,000 to 650,000 cubic yards of lava a day and has added over 500 acres to the island of Hawaii in the last 12 years. Not too far off shore, Loihi Seamount is also erupting at a rate that should allow it to emerge as Hawaii's youngest island in a mere 100,000 years.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park protects both Kilauea and Mauna Loa Volcanoes. The trail that leads to the summit of Mauna Loa, the most massive mountain on earth and taller than Everest, if measured from its base on the ocean floor, passes through intriguing volcanic formations and island wilderness. The trail takes three or four days of rugged mountain hiking to complete. Kilauea, by contrast, is easily accessible by car and provides a number of amenities. In addition to the fantastic and bizarre lava formations, craters, pits, and lava tubes, Kilauea's flanks shelter lush rain forests and stark volcanic deserts.
Despite the relative safety from which visitors can view the current eruption, this geologic process is far from benign. In 1990, lava flows destroyed the entire town of Kalapana. The year before, they engulfed and burned the park's visitor center and surrounded, but did not harm, 700-year-old Wahaula heiau, a native temple adjacent to the park structure.
What to see and do.0 Start your volcanic adventure at the visitor center on the rim of Kilauea Caldera, where you can view a 30-minute film that chronicles recent eruptions, island geology, and Hawaiian culture. Exhibits expand your knowledge of the forces at work in the park and their ongoing importance to native Hawaiians. The rangers here can give you updates on the current eruption, issue backcountry permits, and provide invaluable trail information. They regularly hold informative programs about local geology, history, and island culture. Once you are acquainted with the basics of the park, start out along the Crater Rim Drive for spectacular views of the caldera and access to a wide number and variety of sites.
Historic and scientific buildings in the park include the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, which is not open to the public, but which is situated near an overlook of Halemaumau Crater, legendary home of the goddess Pele. Nearby is the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum with its state-of-the-art multimedia exhibits on Hawaii's volcanology. It is open daily from 8:30 AM to 5 PM and is the best place in the park to obtain up-to-the-minute information on the current eruption. Volcano House, a privately run hotel and restaurant, rests on the site of the first "hotel" in Hawaii, a grass hut that housed visitors to Kilauea from 1846 to 1866 for $1 a night. A wooden Victorian structure replaced a second grass shack in 1877, and was moved across the road when the current hotel, which dates from the 1940s, was erected. The 1877 building is now home to the Volcano Art Center, which exhibits and sells the work of some of the island's best artists.
If you want to get closer to the action than an overlook, you can hike right through Kilauea Iki crater, or witness the regrowth of island flora along Devastation Trail. Halemaumau Trail, a six-and-a-half-mile round-trip, will take you into the heart of Kilauea Caldera. A short hike from Crater Rim Drive leads through the 400-yard-long Thurston Lava Tube, swathed in ferns at either end. For hardier hikers, the three-to-four-day trek to Mauna Loa's summit requires strenuous mountain hiking skills and should not be undertaken by beginners or anyone even remotely out of shape.
Despite its vulcanism, Kilauea teems with life. At Kipuka Puaulu, a self-guided one-mile-long loop trail takes you into a lush forest canopied by trees a hundred feet tall. In this bird sanctuary you can see native birds as well as imported species that have taken up permanent residence. Kipuka Puaulu provides a rare opportunity to see an endemic woodland environment, one that exists in Hawaii and nowhere else on earth.
Two campgrounds operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Kipuka Nene is closed from October to March to protect the nesting Nene (Hawaiian goose), Hawaii's endangered state bird. A few cabins are available at Namakani Paio in addition to campsites; contact the Volcano House for more information.
Most current eruption activity can be seen from the end of the Chain of Craters Road, truncated by lava flows in the mid-1980s. Rangers can give you the latest eruption information, or call 808-985-6000 for up-to-date recorded information.
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Wildlife Viewing |
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