Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Volcanoes National Park

Location: Volcanoes National Park Area, Hawaii

Time Required: 2 days

Red Tape/Notes: Volcanoes National Park is located at a higher elevation, so expect cooler temperatures. Open 24 hours a day, every day. $25 per vehicle (up to 15 people) grants admission for 7 days.

What’s Nearby?: Lava Trees State Monument, Flowing Lava!

If you want to read up on flowing lava (and/or see some pictures), I’ve chosen to cover that in a separate post. This post covers the non-volatile and stationary things to see around the national park. The park is based around the Kilauea Caldera and Crater, and at the very least you’ll want to drive the Crater Rim Drive. Better still, hike the Crater Rim Trail. You’ll get to see steam vents, where rain water seeps into the hot ground and comes back out as steam, the Kilauea Overlook where you have a nice view of both Kilauea Crater and Halema’uma’u Crater (the home of Madame Pele, the volcano goddess), and the Jagger Museum and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, where you’ll find more nice views and some interesting exhibits. You can hike the Kilauea Iki Trail, which is a little over 3 miles, and gives great views of the lava paved crater created during the explosive 1959 eruption. You can view further damage from this eruption on the Devastation Trail, where the trees disappear into a wasteland rather abruptly, though the more adventurous trees are starting to reclaim the land, bit by bit. You can also venture out Chain of Craters road and access the more recent lava flow fields; hiking around and experiencing first hand the cracked and sinister landscape, with occasional open vents reminding you that this area is still very much alive and active. There’s a lot to see and do, and I highly recommend spending a couple of days here. We had pretty lousy weather while we were in the center of the park (much better weather out on the lava fields), but it was still impressive.

Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Volcanoes National Park