The Kahuku Unit of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is perhaps one of the park’s most underrated areas. Open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., this grassy section was once a historic ranch and spans 116,000 acres. Guests can expect to see remnants of ohia lehua forests, unique plant and […]
Peering over the edge of Kilauea Caldera, I instantly feel dwarfed by the mammoth landscape in front of me. I’m at the Jaggar Museum Overlook and the sun has just set, turning the puffs of smoke and ash emanating out of the 3-mile-long Halemaumau Crater into pretty hues of pink and orange. Now huddled with
We wanted to reach Haena before the noon tide swamped the beach, hiding its photogenic black and white sand, the only sandy stretch for miles on a coast known for its imposing cliffs and currents. My friend Andrew and I were alone at the beginning of the Old Puna Trail, where the tidy grid of
All right. First off, stop chuckling at the seeming absurdity of a great road trip in Hawaiʻi. We’ve heard every reason our incomparably scenic island byways never make it onto any great American road-trip lists. Yes, we live on a collection of eight mostly smallish islands, each separated by miles of deep blue Pacific Ocean.
Greet the sun at Kona Historical Society’s outdoor yoga sessions, held every Friday morning on the tranquil grounds of the Kona Coffee Living History Farm, the only living history coffee farm in the nation. You’ll feel like you stepped back in time to the 1920s, where the historic coffee mill, farmhouse and coffee tree orchards
Waimanu Valley’s ancient green amphitheater streams with white water falling from impossibly high heights. Its star, Waihilau Falls, rains down a series of drops totaling an improbable 2,600 feet. Coveted oceanside campsites in this remote and pristine region—the largest of Hawaii Island’s northern valleys—offer a chance to sleep under a blanket of stars, laze away
A cosmos of plankton swirls near my face as I breathe through my snorkel, making sounds not unlike Darth Vader. Tiny orange shrimp, just-hatched, staple-sized translucent larval fish and green algal blobs dance in front of my mask, all driven by internal instinct to the surface by a spotlight facing the seafloor. Beyond, blackness is
Kilauea’s latest lava flow—dubbed 61G, a 5-mile-long flow from Kilauea’s Puu Oo Cone to the southeast on Hawaii Island—has been causing quite a stir. The fiery lava finger points toward the sea within view of two relatively accessible viewing stations in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Kalapana. Hundreds, if not thousands, have flocked to see
Welcome to Waipio. Like all who are fortunate enough to find their way into Waipio Valley, photographer Jack Wolford remembers every moment, every feeling and every sight of every visit over the years. “There are few places left where you can, literally, drive down a road into another world and step back into time,” says
Within earshot of Kailua-Kona’s lava-enclosed airstrip and close enough to the ocean to feel the sea spray, a tiny blue building fronts an unusual aquatic farm, the only one of its kind in the United States. On any given day, Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm is home to more than 20,000 seahorses and I’ve flown from
Last weekend, I checked something incredible off of my bucket list. I hovered mere inches above a 12-foot feeding manta ray in an otherwise pitch-black ocean at night. It sounds crazy—and maybe it is—but these encounters, offered nightly by dozens of operators in the Kailua-Kona are very safe and very popular. An estimated 80,000 people
If you love seeing rare native plants and birds, then you won’t want to miss Kipukapualulu Trail, a 1.2-mile loop through one of Hawaii Island’s last vestiges of native forestland. Located just outside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in eastern Hawaii Island, the free-to-access trail is also known as “Bird Park” to area residents because
