26 Sulphur Bank–Sandalwood Loop
30 From Puu Puai Down the Devastation Trail
31 Crater Rim Road to Halemaumau Overlook
32 Napau Crater Trail to Puu Huluhulu
33 Napau Crater Trail to Makaopuhi Crater
34 Napau Crater Trail to Napau Crater
37 Puna Kau Trail to Apua Point
38 Puna Kau Trail to Keauhou Shelter Backpack
39 Chain of Craters Road to Halape Backpack
40 Hilina Pali Road to Pit Craters
41 Mau Loa o Mauna Ulu to Keauhou Backpack
42 Mau Loa o Mauna Ulu to Halape Backpack
43 Mau Loa o Mauna Ulu to Chain of Craters Road Backpack
44 Hilina Pali Roadend to Pepeiao Cabin Backpack
45 Hilina Pali to Kaaha Shelter Backpack
47 Mauna Loa Trail to Red Hill Cabin Backpack
48 Mauna Loa Trail to Mauna Loa Cabin Backpack
51 Puuhonua o Honaunau (City of Refuge)
53 Kalahuipuaa Historical Park
55 Puukohola Heiau National Historical Site
56 Lapakahi State Historical Park
57 Mookini Heiau and Kamehameha Birthplace
Appendices
B Hikes You Won’t Find Here and Why
C How I Got Distances, Elevations, Times, and Trail Maps
Large volcanic vent and cone with pit crater
Introduction
Can you name this place? On its west, vast fields of forbidding lava stretch from mountains nearly 14,000 feet high to a coast that’s dotted with shimmering blue bays and luxurious resorts. At its northern end, a remote valley, its steep walls richly clothed in rainforest greenery and streaked by waterfalls, protects a way of life that harkens back to the 1900s. On its east, Earth’s most active volcano destroys famous black-sand beaches and creates new ones just a few miles away. If you jumped into the roiling sea at its desolate southern tip—don’t do it!—you wouldn’t touch land again until you reached Antarctica. What can this contradictory place be? What else but the Big Island of Hawaii!
Some will say you can see the Big Island adequately from the air. Others will say you can drive around it and see everything in a day. Still others would park you in a resort and tell you that’s Hawaii. Don’t believe it! The best of the Big Island is outside, along the trails, where there are no barriers of metal, glass, or concrete to separate you from its lush rainforests, flower-filled parks, steaming volcanoes, and acres of lava “moonscapes.” You don’t have to walk far: a worthwhile hike on Hawaii can be as short as a quarter-mile stroll suitable for anyone who’s ambulatory, or it can be as long as a five-day backpack to the top of its second-highest peak, Mauna Loa.
The shape of things
The Big Island of Hawaii is shaped almost like a square, tipped onto one corner—except that the thumb-shaped Kohala Peninsula juts northwest out of the square. The Big Island is made up of five or six volcanoes (more on this in the section on Geology and History). The island’s center is dominated by the two largest volcanoes: 13,796-foot Mauna Kea, which hasn’t erupted for at least 4,500 years, and 13,679-foot Mauna Loa, which last erupted in 1984, menacing the Big Island’s main city, Hilo. Kilauea volcano on the east is the world’s most active volcano. Its most recent eruption began in 1983 and continues as I write this. Kilauea is the centerpiece of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which also includes the summit of Mauna Loa. Hawaii grows each time fresh lava from Kilauea reaches the sea, cools to become new land, and extends the state just a little farther eastward.
Take time for the island of Hawaii
It really is the Big Island! If you have only a day or two on the island of Hawaii, stay put and enjoy what’s nearby. There’s probably a short hike or two in this book that will be