Using This Book
How This Book Organizes the Trips
Imagine the hour hand of a clock pinned to a point near the center of a rounded island. Think of it sweeping around clockwise from a twelve o’clock position that’s due north. It’s easy to envision the hour hand pointing to three o’clock (due east), six o’clock (due south), and nine o’clock (due west) as it moves around.
You can think of Hawaii as a clock with its hour hand pinned to its middle, about halfway up the slope of Mauna Loa from the Saddle Road. A little before the twelve o’clock, the imaginary hour hand points at Waipio Valley. Near three o’clock, it points to Lava Tree State Monument, and at nine o’clock it points to Captain Cook’s Monument. On the right is the Hawaii clock pointing to Waipio Valley.
The trips start near twelve o’clock at Waipio Valley (Trip 1) and move clockwise around the island, ending near eleven o’clock at Pololu Valley (Trip 58). There are two big sets of exceptions to this order; I’ve described them below.
Hikes from the Saddle Road
The first set of exceptions to this organizational scheme are the seven hikes from the Saddle Road (Trips 7 through 13). You can get to the first two, Kaumana Caves and Puu Oo, by daytripping from Hilo. Kaumana Caves and Puu Oo appear first among the Saddle Road hikes and in that order (Trips 7 and 8). Then you jump past a couple of trailheads to the westernmost Saddle Road hike, the one at Mauna Kea State Park (Trip 9). You can do this one as a daytrip from Hilo, too. However, I judge that you should stay at Mauna Kea State Park in order to take the last four Saddle Road hikes (see Appendix A for information on renting a cabin at the park). Staying at Mauna Kea State Park will allow you to get a little bit acclimated and will cut your driving time significantly for the last four Saddle Road hikes (Trips 10 through 13). They are very strenuous, high-altitude trips, one to the top of Mauna Kea and three on the slopes of Mauna Loa.
Hikes in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
No other area on the Big Island offers anything approaching the number and variety of trails you will find in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. All the Big Island backpacking trips that appear in this book are in the park. Kilauea’s latest eruption has severed the park’s road system from the Puna District’s Highway 130. Most of the park’s roads, and therefore most of the hikes in the park, are accessible only from the main entrance off Highway 11, 28 miles southwest of Hilo. Thirty-one of the thirty-four Hawaii Volcanoes National Park trips in this book originate southwest of Hilo. They are Trips 20 through 49.
A left turn from Highway 11 brings you to the toll booths of the entrance station. Just past the entrance station, a right turn brings you to the park’s remaining visitor center, Kilauea Visitor Center. This is an excellent place to stop, take advantage of the restrooms and water fountains, stretch your legs, enjoy the interpretive displays, perhaps buy some books and maps, and get information from the rangers at the front desk. A number of outstanding park trails begin just across the street from Kilauea Visitor Center, near Volcano House (which sits on the rim of Kilauea Crater but is well-hidden from the visitor center by a charming grove of ohia trees and tree ferns). Hikes from Kilauea Visitor Center appear first of those park hikes that originate southwest of Hilo. They are Trips 20 through 27.
The street in front of Kilauea Visitor Center is Crater Rim Road. It allows you to drive completely around Kilauea and Kilauea Iki craters (if it’s not interrupted by road work or volcanic activity). The next set of hikes in this book are those that start somewhere on Crater Rim Road other than Kilauea Visitor Center. They’re in the order you’d find them as you drove away from the visitor center toward Thurston Lava Tube for a clockwise trip around the road. They are Trips 28 through 31.
A few miles down Crater Rim Road, just at the turnoff for the Devastation Trail, you’ll reach the turnoff for the Chain of Craters Road. This road winds down from the Kilauea area of the park, through terrain often drastically altered by the volcano, for more than 20 miles to its end on the Puna coast at the glossy black lavas of 1989. The next set of hikes in this book are those that start on the Chain of Craters Road, roughly in the order they appear as the road descends. They are Trips 32 through 39.
On your way down the Chain of Craters Road, you pass the turnoff for Hilina Pali Road. The next set of hikes in this book are those that start on Hilina Pali Road. They are Trips 40 through 45.
The next set of hikes for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park originates outside the Kilauea area, along the Mauna Loa Road. (Sometimes it’s called the Mauna Loa Strip Road.) You get to this road by staying on Highway 11 for just over two miles past the turnoff to the visitor center. The most important foot trail up Mauna Loa begins—no surprise—at the end of the Mauna Loa Road. Trips 46 through 48 start from the Mauna Loa Road.
There’s one more park hike still farther southwest on Highway 11. That’s the last Hawaii Volcanoes National Park hike in this book, Trip 49, the Footprints Trail.
How to Read the Trip Descriptions
The trip descriptions are in the following format, and here is what the information in each description means:
Distance: 3½miles
Elevation gain: 713’
Hiking time: 2 hours
Topos: Koko Head, Honolulu
Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous, hiking boots recommended
Highlights: A varied rainforest trail in Maunawili Valley leads to a lovely waterfall with a fine pool.
Title
Pretty self-explanatory
Trail type
There are four types of trips described:
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