Exploring Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Kilauea Crater Overlook

by Donald B. MacGowan

An offering to Madame Pele, Kilauea Crater Overlook, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Graphic from Photo by Donald B MacGowan

There are many wondrous, enigmatic and fascinating attractions on the Big Island of Hawaii, some better known than others, many out of the way and generally off the beaten track. Tour Guide Hawaii has produced an encyclopedic collection of the most up-to-date information, presented as short GPS-cued videos, in an app downloadable to iPhone and iPod Touch that covers the entire Big Island, highlighting the popular and the uncrowded, the famous and the secluded, the adventurous and the relaxing.

Kilauea Crater Overlook

Kilauea Crater and Eruption of Halema'uma'u, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

The Kilauea Overlook gives a breathtaking view of Kilauea Caldera and Halema’uma’u Crater. Rarely crowded as it’s not on the scheduled stops of the tour buses, this is a nice, quiet place to sit and contemplate the awesome power of Madame Pele.

Dawn lights up the Mauna Kea Summit Observatories from Kilauea Crater Overlook, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

Look around the area between the parking lot and the crater. Those enormous boulders were cast up out of Kilauea and Halema’uma’u craters during explosive eruptions. Nothing speaks so eloquently to the power and violence of the occasional phreatic (driven by steam from groundwater contact with the hot magma) eruptions of Kilauea as these boulders scattered about the landscape. If you turn your back to the crater and look due north, on a clear day, you can see Mauna Kea peeking over the shoulder of Mauna Loa. Many days you can even make out the astronomical observatories on the summit; after dark you can see headlights of cars winding their tortuous way down the mountainside.

Giant boulder ejected from Kilauea Crater, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

A covered picnic shelter and restrooms are also available. No water is available.

To see the new iPhone/iPod Touch App, please visit http://www.tourguidehawaii.com/iphone.html. The best of Tour Guide Hawaii’s free content about traveling to, and exploring, the Big island, can be found here.For more information on traveling to Hawaii in general and on touring the Big Island in particular, please also visit www.tourguidehawaii.com and www.tourguidehawaii.blogspot.com.

Crater Rim Trail wanders from Kilauea Crater Overlook into a fog bank, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

All media copyright 2010 by Donald B. MacGowan. All rights reserved.

Kilauea Crater and Eruption of Halema'uma'u, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Graphic from Photo by Donald B MacGowan