Kilauea Iki Overlook and Trail
Photo: VitaleBaby (talk . contribs), public domain (cropped)
A stop on Volcanoes National Park Hawaii, a free self-guided tour.
Kilauea Iki, meaning little Kilauea, is a crater next to the main caldera. In late 1959 it erupted spectacularly, with fountains of lava shooting up to about 1,900 feet high, the tallest ever measured in Hawaii. The eruption filled the crater with a lake of lava hundreds of feet deep. Its surface has since cooled and hardened, but the rock below has taken decades to cool.
The Kilauea Iki Trail is a loop of about 3.3 miles. It descends about 400 feet through rainforest to the crater floor, crosses the hardened lava lake past steaming cracks, and climbs back up. Allow two to three hours.
On the crater floor, look for the vent where the fountains erupted, below the cinder cone called Puu Puai, meaning gushing hill.
There is no shade on the crater floor. Bring water, sun protection and rain gear, and stay on the trail, which is marked by stone piles called ahu. Leave any offerings or rocks undisturbed.
More on Wikipedia: Kilauea Iki