Belle_Ann
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2015
- Messages
- 122
Since I see the question here occasionally about visiting Volcano national Park on the Big Island, I thought I'd share my recent experience with my family (we were there last week). We decided to spend the first 2 nights of our trip there before moving over to Oahu. It wasn't originally on my plans because we only had 8 nights total on our trip, but my son and husband really wanted to visit the park and I didn't like the idea of spending 15+ hours touring from Oahu with a group - and looking at costs it was much cheaper to do on our own. We got to do it at our pace and get in a real hike too.
We had flown from MI to Honolulu and then connected to Hilo. It was a long day arriving about 6pm local time. We picked up a car at Avis (it's a small airport and just walk across the front curb to get the car), then went straight to get dinner at Ken's House of pancakes since it was so close. Dinner was ok, nothing great but we were so tired we just wanted to eat and go.
I think it took about 40 min to drive to the park and was easy, just one main highway. We had reserved a cabin through Volcano House Hotel. It was a couple miles down the road from the hotel but check in was at the hotel. From the campground where the cabin was, we could see the glow from the crater in the distance but we were too tired to walk over to see it!
The next morning we were up early and had the breakfast buffet at the Volcano house - great views of the crater!! Breakfast was good and very few people at 7:30 am... we then walked over to the visitor center. It wasn't open yet so we looked at the outdoor exhibits and then took the short drive over to the crater viewing area by the Jagger Museum. The Museum wasn't open either but there's a viewing platform open 24 hours. Great views!
After that we returned to the visitor center since it was open now and got some tips from the Rangers about site seeing and lava flow. Unfortunately the only way to get up close with the lava is to hike or bike I think 4-6 miles down a closed road and it takes at least an hour to drive to where you start there - and can only do the bikes in the later afternoon/early evening. We didn't think our kids (or I!) would make it that late with the time change, Plus we wanted to have dinner overlooking the crater at the restaurant and see the glow from there. So, we planned other things.
We wanted to do a decent hike and chose the Kilauea Iki trail which is about 4.5 miles (down into the crater and back up the other side.). We knew that would take awhile so we grabbed some snacks and lunch foods from the general store at the Military camp that's just down the road from the visitor center. This store isn't well advertised or marked but it's open to the public and really the only place around there to get some food for a picnic lunch.
The weather had been cool and lightly raining off and on - and right when we got to the trail head it started raining harder. So, we decided to first do the Chain of Craters road drive all the way down to the end where it overlooks the ocean. We stopped at a few overlooks along the way and made it to the end where there's parking and a bathroom and a little snack stand. We ate our lunch there and hiked around a bit , saw the Sea Arch, etc. it was much warmer down there by the ocean. There were beautiful views so definitely worth the drive.
We headed back to the Kilauea Iki trail head and finally got started. We bought the little $2 guide book that explains several things along the way. It's a round trip trail and I'd suggest starting to the right of the loop. Then you later end up at the Lava Tube trail and can quickly see that too. The trail takes you down the mountain and then straight across the bottom of the crater. It was like being on another planet down there! You could even see and feel steam vents. It's was cool and windy down there due to clouds and some rain, but probably more comfortable than if it was full on sun since there's no trees. We made it up the other side and saw the lava tube too (with a bunch of bus tours...) It was a great hike if you're up for more than a nature walk. Just bring plenty of water and wear good shoes. It took about 2.5 hours and we took our time with a number of stops along the way.
After that we took a break for a few hours at our cabin before dinner at 6pm. We had a reservation at Volcano House and got a table at the windows overlooking the crater. The food was decent but the ambiance was great, especially after the sunset and the crater starts to glow. After dinner we went over to the Jagger museam again to see the glow much closer and saw lots of stars. The rangers said the lava levels come and go but it was quite good when we were there so we lucked out and could really see it bubbling up.
We headed back to our cabin and crashed for the night. We had a flight out the next morning about 11am so we did a little more driving in the park that morning, and went to another overlook to see sunrise (well...it was a bit after sunrise). We had a last breakfast buffet, did some shopping at the hotel stores and headed out.
I didn't mean to write this much, but hope it's helpful to some thinking about a day trip there. Of course we would have wanted to see much more of the island, but it wasn't in the cards this time. It was still totally worth the trip for us!
We had flown from MI to Honolulu and then connected to Hilo. It was a long day arriving about 6pm local time. We picked up a car at Avis (it's a small airport and just walk across the front curb to get the car), then went straight to get dinner at Ken's House of pancakes since it was so close. Dinner was ok, nothing great but we were so tired we just wanted to eat and go.
I think it took about 40 min to drive to the park and was easy, just one main highway. We had reserved a cabin through Volcano House Hotel. It was a couple miles down the road from the hotel but check in was at the hotel. From the campground where the cabin was, we could see the glow from the crater in the distance but we were too tired to walk over to see it!
The next morning we were up early and had the breakfast buffet at the Volcano house - great views of the crater!! Breakfast was good and very few people at 7:30 am... we then walked over to the visitor center. It wasn't open yet so we looked at the outdoor exhibits and then took the short drive over to the crater viewing area by the Jagger Museum. The Museum wasn't open either but there's a viewing platform open 24 hours. Great views!
After that we returned to the visitor center since it was open now and got some tips from the Rangers about site seeing and lava flow. Unfortunately the only way to get up close with the lava is to hike or bike I think 4-6 miles down a closed road and it takes at least an hour to drive to where you start there - and can only do the bikes in the later afternoon/early evening. We didn't think our kids (or I!) would make it that late with the time change, Plus we wanted to have dinner overlooking the crater at the restaurant and see the glow from there. So, we planned other things.
We wanted to do a decent hike and chose the Kilauea Iki trail which is about 4.5 miles (down into the crater and back up the other side.). We knew that would take awhile so we grabbed some snacks and lunch foods from the general store at the Military camp that's just down the road from the visitor center. This store isn't well advertised or marked but it's open to the public and really the only place around there to get some food for a picnic lunch.
The weather had been cool and lightly raining off and on - and right when we got to the trail head it started raining harder. So, we decided to first do the Chain of Craters road drive all the way down to the end where it overlooks the ocean. We stopped at a few overlooks along the way and made it to the end where there's parking and a bathroom and a little snack stand. We ate our lunch there and hiked around a bit , saw the Sea Arch, etc. it was much warmer down there by the ocean. There were beautiful views so definitely worth the drive.
We headed back to the Kilauea Iki trail head and finally got started. We bought the little $2 guide book that explains several things along the way. It's a round trip trail and I'd suggest starting to the right of the loop. Then you later end up at the Lava Tube trail and can quickly see that too. The trail takes you down the mountain and then straight across the bottom of the crater. It was like being on another planet down there! You could even see and feel steam vents. It's was cool and windy down there due to clouds and some rain, but probably more comfortable than if it was full on sun since there's no trees. We made it up the other side and saw the lava tube too (with a bunch of bus tours...) It was a great hike if you're up for more than a nature walk. Just bring plenty of water and wear good shoes. It took about 2.5 hours and we took our time with a number of stops along the way.
After that we took a break for a few hours at our cabin before dinner at 6pm. We had a reservation at Volcano House and got a table at the windows overlooking the crater. The food was decent but the ambiance was great, especially after the sunset and the crater starts to glow. After dinner we went over to the Jagger museam again to see the glow much closer and saw lots of stars. The rangers said the lava levels come and go but it was quite good when we were there so we lucked out and could really see it bubbling up.
We headed back to our cabin and crashed for the night. We had a flight out the next morning about 11am so we did a little more driving in the park that morning, and went to another overlook to see sunrise (well...it was a bit after sunrise). We had a last breakfast buffet, did some shopping at the hotel stores and headed out.
I didn't mean to write this much, but hope it's helpful to some thinking about a day trip there. Of course we would have wanted to see much more of the island, but it wasn't in the cards this time. It was still totally worth the trip for us!
