Locator Map: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

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Hawaii

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The Big Island, the island of Hawaii, deserves its nickname. More than double the area of all the other Hawaiian islands combined, it’s also almost twice the size of Delaware and about 65 times bigger than the Principality of Liechtenstein, and more than 6,000 times the size of Monaco. It happens to be beautiful as well.

This drive roams the edges of the Big Island, beginning in the garden town of Hilo then traveling through the island’s extensive volcanic zone. It makes a side trip to the southernmost point in the United States before percolating through Kona coffee country. After basking in the sunshine resort areas of Kailua and Kohala, you can take a look at ancient temples before making your way through lush coastal rain forests back to Hilo. CONTINUED

- Hilo
- Lava Tree State Monument
- Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
- Ka Lae
- Kailua
- Lapakahi State Historical Park
- Waipio Valley Overlook

(Continued From Top)

Hilo

Hilo sunrise

Photograph © Phil Schermeister

Hilo (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 250 Keawe St. +1 808 961 5797) has the weathered look of a South Pacific outpost, perhaps because it receives 137 inches [348 centimeters] of rain a year. Its warm, moist climate suits the orchids and other tropical plants that are grown commercially throughout the region. (The Visitors Bureau can direct you to gardens and nurseries.)

Rainbow Falls in Wailuku River State Park, Hilo

Photograph © Phil Schermeister

A natural garden spot, Rainbow Falls (Off Waianuenue Ave. in Wailuku River State Park) is formed as the Wailuku River plunges 80 feet [24.4 meters] and raises mists that sunlight transfigures into rainbows, especially in the morning.

Hilo’s Lyman House Memorial Museum (276 Haili St. +1 808 935 5021. Mon.-Sat.; Adm. fee) displays such Hawaiiana as a thatched house; minerals, including lava; and ethnic artifacts, like a canoe breaker—a stone tied to a rope, which was thrown into an enemy canoe. The 1839 Mission House next door was built by Congregationalist missionaries, which accounts for its New England style. Family items include quilts, furniture, and the preserved New England autumn leaves that Mrs. Lyman poignantly showed her children, who lived in a tropical world without a fall season.

Along Banyan Drive, Hilo

Photograph © Phil Schermeister

In 1946 and 1960 tsunamis wiped out much of the waterfront along Hilo Bay, so you see parks here instead of businesses. Banyan Drive is lined with banyan trees (of course), some planted by celebrities such as aviator Amelia Earhart. On the west side stand the Japanese bridges and stone lanterns of Liliuokalani Gardens. Any morning except Sunday, you can get a good sense of the island’s mix of humanity when the day’s catch is auctioned off in pidgin at the Suisan Fish Market (By Suisan retail shop, near Lihiwai St. 7:30 a.m.).
From Hilo head south on Hawaii 11. To explore a kingdom of lava and black-sand beaches, make a side trip to the sparsely settled eastern corner of the island. At Keaau turn onto Hawaii 130 to Pahoa. Property is relatively cheap around here, as you’d expect in an area where housing developments are periodically buried under molten lava.

Lava Tree State Monument
Take Hawaii 132 and drive through a tropical forest thick with vines and impatiens to Lava Tree State Monument. A grove of ohia trees grew here until about 1790, when lava from the east rift of Kilauea encased the trunks and left rigid shells standing 12 feet [3.7 meters] tall. The former forest floor now looks like crumpled asphalt.
Turn right onto Hawaii 137 and follow the shoreline. Among the hala trees, hidden houses belong to the sort of people who enjoy living in a remote place. One pleasant young hitchhiker, scented with patchouli, introduced himself as Brother ("the name just feels right") and discussed the wheat meatloaf recipe he hoped to "sell to some big company and make a fortune." If you want to swim here, ask locals about beach areas and water safety.
Hawaii 137 ends where molten lava buried the town of Kalapana in 1990. Take Hawaii 130 north to Hawaii 11 and proceed southwest.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Puu Oo spewing molten lava

Photograph © James A. Sugar

Volcanic activity has defined the character of the island for centuries, and at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (+1 808 985 6000. Adm. fee) you'll see the newest earth on Earth. The east rift of Kilauea has been pouring lava since 1983. Also in the park rises 13,679-foot [4,169.4-meter] Mauna Loa, a volcano of such bulk that California's entire Sierra Nevada range could fit comfortably inside. Both are shield volcanoes, the kind that build up through countless small eruptions, in contrast to explosive types like Mount St. Helens.

Take the 20-mile-long [32.2-kilometer-long] Chain of Craters Road that passes through a cooled lava flow (1969-1974) so profuse it could literally pave a highway around the globe. This is a good place for a lava lesson: the jagged kind is called aa, while pahoehoe is the smooth, ropy variety. Around Mile 17, a 1-mile [1.6-kilometer] trail leads through the Puu Loa Petroglyphs, a field of more than 15,000 images and figures carved in lava by earlier Hawaiians. The road ends abruptly where lava covers it like tar on a roof. Across the crinkly surface park rangers mark a path to a viewpoint close to current flows; check with rangers for safety tips. The temperature of flowing lava is about 2,100ºF [1,148°C]. When it hits the ocean, steam boils up, and the air fills with roaring, snapping noises.

Fern in Kilauea Crater

Photograph © Phil Schermeister

Along the 11-mile [17.7-kilometer] Crater Rim Drive you can explore the margin of the Kilauea Caldera. Start by learning about volcanoes through the film and exhibits at the Kilauea Visitor Center. Then take the short Earthquake Trail (near the Volcano House hotel) to look at the nearly 2-mile-wide [3-kilometer-wide] Kilauea Caldera. Drive on clockwise around the rim and enter a rain forest of ferns and ohia trees with scarlet flowers. Stop to see Kilauea Iki Crater, once a lake of seething lava formed by a fountain shooting nearly 2,000 feet [609.6 meters] high during the powerful 1959 eruption. Be sure to explore the rambling Thurston Lava Tube, formed during an eruption hundreds of years ago. The volcano goddess, Pele, is said to live in the steaming precincts of the Halemaumau Crater, and local people make offerings of native Hawaiian song and dance for her at the crater’s edge. Beyond this stretches a strange, barren landscape—the Kau Desert, produced by the acid rain that is a by-product of the island’s volcanism.
Farther along at the Jaggar Museum, you can become a connoisseur of lava, from Pele’s tears (volcanic glass) to volcanic bombs. Drive on to see the steam vents (or fumaroles) of appropriately named Steaming Bluff, and Sulfur Banks, whose smelly volcanic gases have tinted the rocks in rust and yellowish-green. The loop ends back at the Visitor Center.

Ka Lae
Continue southwest on Hawaii 11, where a short detour leads to the well-known, black-sand Punaluu Beach Park. Farther on, you reach the southernmost town in the United States, Naalehu, where monkeypod trees form a green canopy over the road. About 6 miles [10 kilometers] past Naalehu an 11-mile-long [17.7-kilometer-long] side road takes you through bare country to Ka Lae (South Point), the nation’s southernmost spot. At road’s end you’re 500 miles [804.7 kilometers] farther south than Miami. Along the windy coast here you’ll find the ruins of a stone heiau (temple) and a fishing shrine.
Just after you rejoin Hawaii 11 west, you’ll see the vast 1868 lava flow that came from Mauna Loa to the north. Winding into the South Kona area, the drive turns onto Hawaii 160. On the way downhill take a brief side trip to St. Benedict’s Painted Church, whose ornate interior was created between 1899 and 1904 by a Belgian priest using ordinary house paint. The church’s inside posts look like palm trees, with fronds spreading across sunset skies. Panels showing biblical scenes were used to teach Christian themes to Hawaiians who couldn’t read.

Puuhonua o Honaunau National Park, South Kona

Photograph © Phil Schermeister

Continue on Hawaii 160 to Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park (+1 808 328 2288. Adm. fee), dating from the 16th century. A "place of refuge," this was where Hawaiians who had violated one of the many kapu (taboos) sought a safe haven. If they could reach here before being captured, they could avoid punishment or death. On the park’s seaside grounds stand a rebuilt temple with wooden statues and a stone wall that separated refuges from the adjoining royal palace area, now in ruins.
North about 4 miles [6.4 kilometers] lies Kealakekua Bay, a marine preserve popular with snorkelers and a site that changed Hawaiian history. Here in 1779 the two ships of Capt. James Cook appeared under full sail—fulfilling a Hawaiian prophecy that the god Lono would return to earth on a "floating island," with banners of white tapa. Cook was welcomed as Lono but later was killed during an altercation. The Hikiau Heiau State Monument is a temple devoted to Lono. Captain Cook’s Monument stands on the far side of the bay.
Take Middle Keei and Napoopoo Roads to return to Hawaii 11 and head north. After 9 miles [14.5 kilometers] you can turn off to Kahaluu Beach Park. Here the snorkeling is easy, but stay in the gentle water close to shore.

Kailua
Continue to Kailua (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 75-5719 Alii Dr. +1 808 886 1655), a deep-sea fishing and coffee-growing capital, and a sunny resort region. Even Hawaiian monarchs liked it here, and Kamehameha the Great spent his last years in the early 1800s at Ahuena Heiau (Grounds of King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel, 75-5660 Palani Rd. +1 808 329 2911), cogitating on proper government. A prayer tower and wooden images have been reconstructed on the temple site.
Hawaiian royalty summered at Hulihee Palace (75-5718 Alii Dr. +1 808 329 1877. Adm. fee), a harborside structure built in 1838 of lava and coral. Rooms feature the belongings of Hawaiian monarchs, including the furniture of King Kalakua and the spears of Kamehameha the Great.
Built in the 1830s, Mokuaikaua Church (Across from Hulihee Palace. +1 808 329 1589) reflects the New England heritage of the island’s Boston missionaries, though it is built of island materials—lava rock with coral-based mortar—and filled with koa-wood pews. It is said to be the oldest church in the state.

After leaving Kailua on Hawaii 19, stop to visit the ruins of an old native village at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (3 miles [4.8 kilometers] N, call for directions. +1 808 329 6881). Legend says the bones of Kamehameha the Great are buried nearby. Soon you enter the hot, dry coastline of South Kohala. The area here is dotted with luxury resorts, of which the Hilton Waikoloa Village (Mile 76. +1 808 885 1234 or 800 445 8667) ranks as the supreme fantasy. The development has created its own canal, beach, waterfalls, and private dolphin lagoon. Canalboats and trams ferry guests around the enormous complex.
In Puako, the Puako Petroglyphs Archaeological Preserve (Via Mauna Lani and N. Kaniku Drs. to Holoholokai Beach Park; 0.8-mile [1.3-kilometer] trail begins in parking lot) protects 3,000 lava carvings of unknown age and indeterminate meaning. The images include stick figures, triangular torsos, and what may be columns of warriors marching with their chiefs.
Continue north on Hawaii 19, and just before you reach Kawaihae, stop at Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site (+1 808 882 7218). In 1790, the 7-foot-tall [2.1-meter-tall] Kamehameha the Great built a temple to his war god here, as a prophet said he must in order to conquer the Hawaiian archipelago. Human sacrifices took place on the lava-rock platform at the site.

Lapakahi State Historical Park
From the town of Kawaihae, Hawaii 270 follows the coast 12 miles [19.3 kilometers] north to Lapakahi State Historical Park (+1 808 974 6200), which preserves a remnant fishing village founded around 1300. On a pretty piece of shoreline you’ll see a canoe house, stone fishing god, partially restored residences, and Hawaiian board games.
At Mile 20 turn off to Upolu Airport, go 2 miles [3.2 kilometers] and take a left on a dirt road. After 2 more miles [3.2 kilometers], you’ll reach the remote and haunting Mookini Heiau, used for human sacrifices. It’s said warriors passed rocks along a 14-mile [22.5-kilometer] human chain to build the 250-foot-long [76.2-meter-long] structure. Nearby stands a large lava-rock enclosure marking the 1758 King Kamehameha I Birthplace.
As you round the northwest tip of the island, turn off Hawaii 270 onto Hawaii 250, which takes you to Waimea (Kamuela). At the Parker Ranch Visitors Center (Hawaii 19. +1 808 885 7655. Adm. fee) you can learn about one of the nation’s biggest ranches (225,000 acres; 91,054 hectares), founded in 1847. Off Hawaii 190, the ranch’s historic houses can be visited—the elegant Puuopelu (Adm. fee), with French Regency furnishings; and Mana Hale (Adm. fee), a simple 1840s New England saltbox built by ranch founder John Palmer Parker.

Waipio Valley Overlook
Follow Hawaii 19 to Honokaa, a former sugar mill town, and turn left on Hawaii 240 for 9 miles [14.5 kilometers] to the Waipio Valley Overlook. Before you, cliffs rise as high as 2,000 feet [609.6 meters] to guard a valley of taro patches; fishponds; and coconut, guava, and banana trees. Hawaiians have lived in this valley for a thousand years, though a tsunami in 1946 drove out most of the population. On certain nights the nobility of old are said to return here and light up the valley with their torch marches. A steep dirt road requiring four-wheel-drive or foot power leads down to the valley; or you can take the hourly Waipio Valley shuttle van (+1 808 775 7121. Mon.-Fri.; Fare).
Return to Hawaii 19 and head south down the Hamakua Coast, a region of lush greenery and streams. You can wander in a rain forest on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea volcano at Kalopa State Park (+1 808 974 6200), then drive on to the black-sand beach at Kolekole Beach Park. The surf here is treacherous, but Kolekole Stream has pools to splash in.
Turn inland on Hawaii 220 for a short side trip to the 420-foot-high [128-meter-high] cascade at Akaka Falls State Park (+1 808 974 6200), located along a trail lush with tropical plants. For more of the rain forest take the Four Mile Scenic Route and make a stop at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden (+1 808 964 5233. Adm. fee); along the way you’ll be treated to glimpses of Onomea Bay. Return to Hilo on Hawaii 19, enjoying the view of Hilo Bay.