Volcano National Park

First, on Maui, consider Haleakala. You start up at the top, hike down through the main crater, and then exit out the east end.

On Hawaii Island, the tallest volcano is Mauna Kea. You can hike from a parking lot at 9000 feet up the unpaved road to the top, or, you can take some hiker shortcuts. The top is nice if you are into astronomy.

Almost as tall is Mauna Loa. You start from the Saddle Road (6000 feet), and either drive, hitchhike, or walk up to a science center at 11,000 feet. From there, the trail goes up to the crater, and then on up to the summit. You can turn around and head down toward the main ML trailhead for HVNP and get a ride down from there to HQ, which is where all of the tourists are. I think that much was 2.5 days. If you are really sharp-eyed, there are lava tubes along the way, and they make absolutely great hasty shelters.

Then from the HQ area, you can hitch or drive down toward the newest vents of Kilauea, which is where all of the real action is. There are some good volcanic hiking trails on the way, but the real action is at the active lava flow into the sea.

Beware that weather can blow in from the ocean at just about anytime, and there, it is not fog or smog, it is VOG (the volcanic equivalent of smog). There is a lot of volcanic gas in the area, so I hope that you are not asthmatic.

I was shooting the lava flow, but it was yellow-hot, and the NPS rangers had orange safety cones marking off where the tourists were allowed to stand. But I wanted to get a photo from a little closer angle, so I worked my way around the cones as I shot. Then, I had this funny feeling in my feet. I looked down, and the synthetic soles of my boots were melting onto the still-hot rock surface. It was time to leave.
–B.G.–

The hike from the Haleakala summit to the sea is on my life list. It's just a couple of days, but it looks to be spectacular and unique. And it ends near the "Seven Sacred Pools"- nice little joke on the tourists, that one… :o) And, Lord knows, I could happily grow old in Hana.

I've spent time vacationing at Kilauea Military Camp on the Big Island (an MWR facility in HVNP just a few hundred yards from the caldera rim), and it's not a bad "base camp" if you have commissary privileges and thus are eligible to rent a cottage. The hike across the volcano floor is an easy- almost trivial- dayhike for anyone with any hiking experience at all.

I know very little about longer hikes on the Big Island but I'm very interested in them- so if you come up with one let me know!

I have hiked there and there are probably not many guidebooks because it's always changing.

There's no mistaking where to start from; It's the end of the road, with a trailer that the Park Service uses for some displays. They do have a trail marked with a bunch of reflective markers that you can follow to the viewing area (all you can see is steam from the lava hitting the water) and it goes past where the lava flowed over the original park service road and the road signs.

The key to seeing actual lava flowing is to plan your hike around dusk. It's really tough to see it flowing in the daylight. The rangers in the main visitor center may let you know where some active flows are (besides the flows that are actually flowing into the water that you really couldn't see unless you were in a boat) but they really discourage visitors from hiking to them because of the "danger."

As long as you have a headlamp, it's easy to hike back out–without one, it would be really tough.

Hey Ryan,

There is a fantastic overnight hike to a couple backcountry campsites located on the beach in Hawai'i Volcanoes NP. The sites are called Halape and Keauhou. We spent one night at Keauhou on a park ranger's recommendation, but would easily have stayed longer had we had any idea of how beautiful and remote it would be.

The hike is 8 miles downhill from the Chain of Craters Road, over various lava flows to the site. Aside from hundreds of roaches at night, it was an amazing campsite, right off the beach. The next morning we hiked out via the 11-mile Puna Coast trail, which intersects the Chain of Craters Road further down. The Puna Coast trail is an old fishing route for Hawaiians, and in certain places the foot path is worn into the older flows by several inches. Really amazing.

One problem is that the road was a lot more well-travelled in the past, as Kileaua was erupting into the ocean and you could drive pretty close to the lava itself. As of late 2007, the lava switched course and was no longer visible from the road, leaving the it pretty deserted. Luckily we were able to catch a ride back up to our car after a two-hour wait. If you can shuttle a car or arrange a pick-up from where the Puna Coast trail hits the road, it makes for an incredible hike.