Sight · Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
A roadside look into a crater shaped by three eruptions.
Overview
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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
Pauahi Crater: A Lava Whirlpool“Pauahi Crater is coming up, a quick roadside look into three overlapping pits. Stop if you'd enjoy studying the steep walls and broken floor without taking a hike.”
Plays as you drive up to Pauahi Crater 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
Pauahi Crater is a roadside viewpoint into a composite triple-pit crater on Chain of Craters Road. The bowl is about 360 feet deep and 1,600 feet long. It’s a quick look from the rim, but the broken floor and steep walls make the crater’s scale easy to read.
Three eruptions reshaped Pauahi between May 1973 and November 1979. In November 1973, lava pooled on the floor in a fiery whirlpool; the floor visible today carries a thin veneer from the 1979 eruption.
Pauahi combines pau, “finished or destroyed,” and ahi, “fire”—together, “destroyed by fire.” The crater is culturally significant and religious to many Native Hawaiians. You may see hoʻokupu offerings wrapped in pūʻolo (tī leaves); leave them undisturbed.
This is a roadside rim view, not a crater-floor visit. Include the steep walls as well as the floor in a photo; that helps show the crater’s depth.
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
ModerateMaunaulu / Puʻuhuluhulu Trail2.5 mi · 2.5 hr · 0.7 mi awayCross 1969 lava flows to a forested cone and its viewing platform.
ChallengingNāpau Trail12.4 mi · 7.2 hr · 0.7 mi awayCross old lava rivers into a fern forest and a crater overlook.
ChallengingMakaopuhi Crater Trail8.2 mi · 5 hr · 0.8 mi awayA long lava crossing opens at a steep, forested crater rim.
ChallengingKeauhou Trail15.2 mi · 8.5 hr · 2.8 mi awayLava ridges lead to a freshwater seep on the remote coast.
EasyDevastation Trail1 mi · 1 hr · 3 mi awayA short paved walk through cinder from Kīlauea Iki’s 1959 eruption.
EasyKeanakākoʻi Crater Trail2 mi · 1.3 hr · 3 mi awayAn easy walk on a former road reaches a 115-foot crater.
ModerateUēaloha (Byron Ledge) Trail2.2 mi · 1.5 hr · 3 mi awayOpen cinder, forested ledge, and views of Puʻupuaʻi.
EasyNāhuku (Thurston Lava Tube) Trail0.4 mi · 30 min · 3 mi awayA short ferny walk leads into a 500-year-old lava tube.
Sight · 1.3 mi awayPuʻuhuluhulu OverlookA forested cone gives a close view of Maunaulu’s lava shield.
Sight · 1.6 mi awayKoʻokoʻolau Crater LookoutA pit crater with a 1958 survey marker on its rim.
Sight · 2.1 mi awayPuhimau CraterA quick roadside look into one of Kīlauea's steep-walled pit craters.
Sight · 2.6 mi awayLuamanu and July 1974 FlowA crater holds the mark of lava that later drained away.
Scenic pullout · 2.8 mi awayMau Loa o MaunauluSee Maunaulu's glassy 1969–74 lava field from the road.
Sight · 3.1 mi awayNāhuku Lava TubeA rainforest walk opens into a lava tunnel.Sight · 3.2 mi awayKeanakākoʻi CraterA short old-road walk reaches a crater layered with human history.
Sight · 3.2 mi awayPuʻupuaʻi OverlookSee Kīlauea Iki from beside the cone its eruption built.Parkwolf’s Hawaiʻi Volcanoes ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
