Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rd (the other starting point). Hiking about halfway along the Mauna Iki Trail, to Puʻu
Koaʻe, makes a good end point.
The lava terrain is noticeably more intense and wild as you continue, with vivid color-
ful rents, collapsed tubes and splatter cones; in cracks you can find piles of Pele's golden
hair.
Napau Crater Trail
HIKING
This trail is one of the park's most varied and satisfying all-day hikes. It passes lava
fields, immense craters and thick forest, and ends with distant views of Puʻu ʻOʻo, the
source of Kilauea's ongoing eruption. For a more leisurely experience, consider back-
country camping here.
The distance to the campground (the current end of the trail) is 7 miles (or 5 miles
from the Kealakoma starting point), making it a 10- to 14-mile adventure (about six to
eight hours round-trip). Note that this is the only day hike that requires a permit; all
hikers should register at the
Visitor Emergency Operations Center
((VEOC);
8am-4pm)
before heading out. Rather than taking the Napau Crater Trail from its trailhead
(the same one as for Puʻu Huluhulu Overlook Trail), you'll save about 4 miles and sever-
al hours if you begin on the Naulu Trail, which leaves from Kealakomo on Chain of
Craters Rd. What you miss on this abbreviated version of the trail are the grandest Maka-
opuhi Crater and Mauna Loa views, plus the huffing vents and cracks peppering the act-
ive rift. The Kealakomo route is described here.
For the first hour, you hike mostly sinuous, leathery
pahoehoe
lava, following
sometimes-difficult-to-see cairns. Then you enter some trees and (surprise!) stumble
across paved portions of the old Chain of Craters Rd, which was buried in a 1972 erup-
tion. Follow the pavement (complete with dashed white line) past the junction with the
unmaintained Kalapana Trail.
After a quick sprint across some
ʻaʻa
, you enter moody fern-and-ohia forest; in less
than a mile is the Napau Crater Trail junction - turn right.
Keep an eye on your left for openings to view the mile-wide
Makaopuhi Crater
.
About 30 minutes later, low lava rock walls indicate the site of an old ʻpulu factory.' The
golden, silky ʻhair' found at the base of fiddlehead stems,
pulu
was exported as mattress
and pillow stuffing in the late 1800s. This stretch is often festooned with cheery orchids.
You may think you're near the airport - considering the helicopter traffic - but in fact
you're 10 minutes from the primitive
campground
(with pit toilet), closed during re-
search due to fumes. Definitely take the spur to the Napau Crater overlook (to see steam-
ing Puʻu ʻOʻo) - a picnic spot with a view. At the time of research, the rest of this trail
was closed due to a Puʻu ʻOʻo vent collapse and shifts in the eruption. When open, the
