Some people (smart people?) go camping on the beach in Hawaii. I, on the other hand, went to the only rainforest campsite in the Hawaii Volcano National Park this weekend: Napau (shown in the photo above). It was wet and a good chunk of the trail meandered through thick brush and spiderwebs, but the views of Napau and the neighboring craters just about made up for it.
Kilauea is a rather large volcano with pockets of activity all over the place. In addition to the Kalapana lava flow fields and the summit crater, a major area of interest is Pu’u O’o crater. When Kilauea started erupting in 1983, the initial eruptions created Pu’u O’o crater. During the initial years of the now 27-year-old eruption, lava fountains built up a cone of splatter and activity remained at Pu’u O’o. While the magma source centered underneath Pu’u O’o, often times magma creeped around and oozed out of nearby fissures. One of these fissures was 4 km away and emptied into Napau crater.
After 3 years, activity at Pu’u O’o stopped. The fickle magma source moved to another location a few km away: Kupaianaha. But by 1992, the magma had returned to it’s initial home at Pu’u O’o. And not too long after in January 1997, lava erupted out of Napau crater once again.
The second, most recent love affair with Napau crater was brief, but sweet. Only a 24 hour event, this eruption is referred to as episode 54. Flows from this episode covered 48 acres and the eruption had minor lava fountains.
Napau has yet to erupt since 1997. Instead, the crater has seen a different kind of activity in recent years: foot traffic. The Napau Crater trail is 14 miles round trip. The trail starts along different lava flows (a’a and pahoehoe) from the Mount Ulu eruptions that spanned from 1969 through 1974. Mount Ulu, which means growing mountain, is a small shield volcano that is part of the greater Kilauea volcano. Shield volcanoes are gradually built up lava-thick slopes from numerous eruptions. They look like warrior shields, hence their name.
The later part of the trail (including the camping site) runs through the dense forest. As the term rain forest suggests, the place is wet and rain is frequent. I highly recommend bringing along a rain jacket, rain pants, and a rain cover for your tent. Otherwise there is a 99.9% chance you will be miserable.
*If you are planning on camping, it is important to register with the park and get a camping permit.
A view of old lava flows. Pahoehoe flows are in the foreground and a wall of menacing a'a flows line the background.
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