Holei Sea Arch, Volcanoes National Park, Hawai'i

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/14/2026	0.6 miles	29 minutes	27'	2.6 mph	96.5

Parking: 

• Holei Sea Arch, Chain of Craters Road

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• National Park map 

Directions:

• Hōlei Sea Arch (U.S. National Park Service) 
• Follow the paved road to the sea arch on the right. 

After visiting the petroglyphs trail, we drove to the end of Chain of Craters Road to see the 90-foot Holei Sea Arch. On the way, we saw lava fields all the way down to the ocean. I sketched a little. Before we left, we decided to take some fun Instagram type photos, though I never post my hike photos on Instagram. Some younger people were humored by our attempts and started coaching us on how to pose. It was hilarious, and we laughed so hard.

Driving to the ocean

Chain of Craters Road overlooks and Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs Trail, Volcanoes National Park, Hawai'i

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/14/2026	1.3 miles	40 minutes	23'	1.9 mph	95.9

Parking: 

• Pukapuaulu Trailhead

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• National Park map 

Directions:

• This is a lollypop hike. Take the trail from the parking lot, and when it splits take the left spur. Hike in a loop. When you finish the loop, keep left/straight to return to the parking lot.

We drove to the small town of Volcano to do laundry and go out for lunch. The laundromat is next door to a Thai restaurant. The laundromat didn't sell laundry detergent, so we stopped by a hardware store to see if they had any. It was a small hardware store with pretty bare shelves. We found a big box of borax and decided it would have to make do. We threw in a load of laundry and headed to the Thai restaurant. Thai restaurants tend to use fish sauce in most of their dishes, so I asked what they had that was vegetarian. The waiter said they had no vegetarian dishes. I decided to sit in the parking lot and sketch while my friends ate their lunch.

We went for drive along the Chain of Craters Road, stopping at the many overlooks there. Many look out at other craters. We landed up at the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs Trail for our third hike of the day. We didn't have much time before sunset, so we rushed out to hike it. It's a trail through a lava field, with a boardwalk loop around petroglyphs at the end. There are over 23,000 petroglyphs there, but of course we only saw a small portion. Petroglyphs fascinate me, so if I hear about a trail with them, I always try to visit them.

Puhimau Crater

Trying to take a photo of a mongoose - we saw many of them during our trip.

Pauahi Crater

Hawai'i Amakihi

Lava flow going down to the ocean

Petroglyphs Trail

Common Lantana

Tree Molds and Kipuka Puaulu Trail, Volcanoes National Park, Hawai'i

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/14/2026	1.1 miles	55 minutes	157'	1.5 mph	94.6

Parking: 

• Pukapuaulu Trailhead

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• National Park map 

Directions:

• This is a lollypop hike. Take the trail from the parking lot, and when it splits take the left spur. Hike in a loop. When you finish the loop, keep left/straight to return to the parking lot.

Our next stop of the day was to visit a stop with tree molds. These are holes in the ground surrounded by lava where trees used to grow. Not a hike, just a short stop.

We then continued on to a hike close by called Kipuka Puaulu Trail. This is an easy hike with what is considered older growth vegetation surrounded by a more recent lava flow from Mauna Loa.

A tree mold

Just a pretty piece of reticulite

Many hikes require you to clean & spray your boots 
to prevent the spread of the fungusʻŌhiʻa Death.

The loop trail

The vegetation here looks very different from what we've seen before.
It almost reminds me of NC or NY.

Enormous fiddleheads

Hairy Bird's-foot-trefoil

Scarlet Pimpernel