Mauna Loa Trail to Puʻuʻulaʻula (Red Hill) Cabin

Mauna Loa Trail to Puʻuʻulaʻula (Red Hill) Cabin is a 15-mile out-and-back from the Mauna Loa Road Lookout. The park’s 7.5-mile distance is one way; this total counts the return over the same trail. You start around 6,662 feet and climb 3,373 feet to the cabin at 10,035 feet. Allow about eight hours, and leave a daylight buffer: a published hike account took four hours just to reach Red Hill. This is a serious high-altitude day for fit, experienced hikers. The cabin is the turnaround for this route, not the summit.

Most of the route crosses rough, jagged lava that can be loose underfoot. Cairns mark the way, but the tread is not always obvious. One hiker described spending minutes looking for the next cairn in the dark; daylight made the route easier to read. Keep the cairns in sight and do not count on finding your way through a whiteout. The abrasive lava can beat up your feet, so sturdy boots are a better bet than light shoes.

Puʻuʻulaʻula Cabin sits on Red Hill at 10,035 feet, with a view of Mauna Loa. It provides shelter, sleeping and cooking areas, catchment water, and a composting toilet. Overnight stays require a backcountry permit; the cabin is limited to 24 hikers a night and has eight bunks. Treat all catchment water, and check its level with the backcountry office before you go. For a day hike, turn around at the cabin; the line here does not continue to the summit.

The altitude is a major part of the difficulty. The park warns that altitude illness is common on Mauna Loa. High winds, whiteouts, snow, or driving rain can occur at any time of year, storms can arrive without warning, and nights drop below freezing year-round. Poor visibility also makes the cairns harder to follow. If the cairn line disappears or weather turns, turn back while you can still navigate confidently.

The start is the Mauna Loa Road Lookout shelter at the top of the one-lane paved road, about an hour’s drive from Kīlauea Visitor Center. There is no drinking water or public transportation at the trailhead; parking capacity and fees were not reported. Dogs are prohibited on park trails, except service animals. Do not mix this southern approach with the separate route from Mauna Loa Observatory.

Mauna Loa is one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, and this hike crosses its high southern flank. The 2022 eruption covered parts of the trail above Red Hill with new lava, a useful reason to distinguish this cabin hike from older accounts that continue toward the summit. The journey itself is about the climb over lava and the clear turnaround at the cabin, not a summit circuit.