Hawaiʻi Volcanoes

PeaksHawaii,United States

Fragile nature — stay on the trail, leave no trace.

One of the most active volcanoes on Earth, on Hawaii's Big Island, whose summit pit dropped 500 metres in 2018 and now fountains lava again.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

Summer is the driest, clearest stretch, with June the least rainy month and August the sunniest. The summit's near-constant cloud and mist thin more often, and clear nights give the best odds of catching the eruption's glow on the drifting plume with stars overhead.

Year-round Kīlauea has erupted in bursts since late 2024, and its glow lights the night sky whenever lava nears the surface. The eruptions follow no calendar, so check its status.

Kīlauea, on Hawaii's Big Island, is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, and its summit pit dropped about 500 metres in 2018. To Native Hawaiians that pit, Halemaʻumaʻu, is not scenery at all. It is a wahi kapu, a sacred place and the living home of Pele, the volcano goddess, and offerings wrapped in leaves are still left along the rim. What she has been doing lately is easy to follow. Over three months in 2018 the floor fell in while lava poured out of the flank and destroyed 700 homes, and the pit ended up more than twice as wide. By late 2020 groundwater had filled it with a green lake some fifty metres deep, and an eruption boiled it away in about ninety minutes. Since December 2024 it has worked in bursts, hours of lava fountains from the same vent and then days or weeks of nothing, so whether you see one is luck. What carries almost every night is the glow: from the overlooks after dark, the light off the lava bleeds orange into the gas plume standing over the crater. By day you walk on what earlier eruptions left. The Kīlauea Iki trail drops through ʻōhiʻa rainforest and comes out onto the flat, cracked floor of a crater that held a churning lava lake in 1959, with steam still rising through the cracks under your boots. Nāhuku is a tunnel that a river of lava drained about five hundred years ago, cool enough now for you to stroll through in minutes, ferns crowding the entrance and fine ʻōhiʻa roots feeling their way down through the ceiling. The red lehua blossom on those trees is the first thing to take hold on new black rock. Kīlauea takes the attention, but the same park holds Mauna Loa, which makes up about half the island and, measured from the sea floor, stands higher than Everest. And the fountains throw out volcanic glass that carries her name too: glossy black beads called Pele's tears, and hair-fine golden strands, Pele's hair, that catch in the rocks downwind.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The lava glow reads best after full dark — check the USGS forecast before you drive up, since fountaining comes in short episodes days apart, then watch the orange light thrown onto the gas plume.
Volcanic smog called vog settles over the summit — sulphur dioxide can climb near the crater on light winds, so anyone with heart or lung trouble should watch the air-quality alerts and move upwind.
The park stays open around the clock for one vehicle fee — there is no timed-entry booking, so you can drive up for the night glow and leave whenever the cold sends you home.
Aim for the Uēkahuna and Keanakākoʻi overlooks — the 2018 collapse closed part of Crater Rim Drive, so reaching the closest crater views now often means a short walk on foot.

Things to do

1
Watch Halemaʻumaʻu glow after dark
After sunset, drive up to the caldera overlooks and watch Halemaʻumaʻu's light bleed orange into the volcanic gas plume above it. The glow is strongest when lava sits near the surface, and it often carries even on nights when the volcano is otherwise quiet. Since December 2024 Kīlauea has erupted in bursts — hours of lava fountains from the same pit, then days or weeks of quiet — so catching a live episode comes down to luck and the USGS forecast. Bring a flashlight and a warm layer; the summit air bites at 1,200 metres.
2
Hike across the floor of Kīlauea Iki
The Kīlauea Iki Trail drops through ʻōhiʻa rainforest and out onto the flat, cracked floor of a crater that held a churning lava lake in 1959. You walk straight across the hardened lava with steam still rising from vents underfoot, then climb back up the far wall. It runs about four miles round trip.
3
Read the scale from the caldera rim
From the Uēkahuna and Keanakākoʻi overlooks the full sweep of Kīlauea's caldera opens up, with the deep pit of Halemaʻumaʻu at its centre. The 2018 collapse more than doubled the width of that pit and dropped its floor far below the old crater. From the rim you can read the raw scale of what the volcano rearranged in a single summer.
4
Walk through the Nāhuku lava tube
Step into Nāhuku, a tunnel drained by a river of lava about 500 years ago and now cool enough to stroll through in a few minutes. Ferns crowd the entrance and fine ʻōhiʻa roots reach down from the ceiling, feeling their way through the rock. Its Hawaiian name means "the protuberances," for the lava drippings that once studded the roof.