Campground · Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A primitive shelter and rocky bay reward a hard coastal hike.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes audio tourRecorded for this place
Mau Loa o Maunaulu: Glassy Lava and a Long Trail“You're nearing Mau Loa o Maunaulu, where you can look across the lava field straight from the pullout. Look uphill for Maunaulu's broad shield, the source of these flows.”
Plays as you drive up to Keauhou Backcountry Campsite in the Parkwolf Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Keauhou is a remote backcountry campsite on the park’s southern coast, near a small rocky bay at the end of a long route across rough lava and grassland. The shortest approach is 7.6 miles from the Maunaulu trailhead via Keauhou Trail, reached from Chain of Craters Road; the elevation change from trailhead to camp can reach 3,000 feet. You need a backcountry permit. The site is limited to 16 hikers a night and three consecutive nights per site.
A three-walled shelter gives shade, and the site has a composting toilet and a roof-fed catchment tank. The tank may be empty, so check its level with rangers before setting out and treat any water you collect. There are no streams in this area. Carry at least four quarts of water per person a day; don't plan on topping up here.
The route is rocky, uneven and exposed. Stone cairns mark it and can be hard to see in rain or mist, and impossible to follow in darkness. Avoid hiking the coast during the hottest part of the day, roughly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. At the shore, cold fresh water seeps to the surface and meets the sea in the rocky bay. Surf and currents along this coast are rough and unpredictable, so treat this as a place to camp and look, not an open-ocean swimming spot.
Wildlife
600 sightingsHawaiian Goose (Nēnē)Most seen around 5 PMSighting map
35 sightingsGreen Sea TurtleMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
36 sightingsHawaiian Hawk ('Io)Most seen around 11 AMSighting map
41 sightingsBlack NoddyMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
96 sightingsWhite-tailed TropicbirdMost seen around noonSighting map
24 sightingsHawai'i 'ElepaioMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Hawaiʻi Volcanoes. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
Campground · 1.5 mi awayHalapēA remote beach camp for prepared backcountry hikers.
Campground · 2.7 mi awayʻĀpua PointA palm grove at the end of a long, exposed coastal hike.
Campground · 4.8 mi awayKaʻahaA remote coastal camp reached by a steep switchback descent.
Sight · 4.8 mi awayMuliwai a PeleA three-day lava river left its own channels and levees.Parkwolf’s Hawaiʻi Volcanoes ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
