Puʻu o Lokuana Trail

Puʻu o Lokuana Trail is a 2-mile loop through historic ranch roads, a tree-fringed pasture, 1868 lava, and the red cinder cone in the Kahuku Unit. Allow 1 to 1½ hours; the park lists about 130 feet of elevation change. The green kīpuka surrounded by dark lava and the view from the cone are the rewards. The separate 0.4-mile Cinder Cone Hike is a shorter, summit-focused route.

The marked route winds through the pasture, skirts lava-tree molds, then crosses rough lava along the old airstrip before returning by the cone. Grass can hide rocks; the lava has deep cracks and sharp edges. Follow the markers and leave the stacked-stone ahu in place. Sturdy shoes help on the broken surface.

The pasture is a kīpuka, a pocket of older land left surrounded by younger lava. It was used for traditional agriculture before ranching. Trees fringe the grass, while ʻōhiʻa, pūkeawe, and ʻōhelo have taken root in the surrounding lava. The contrast between the green pocket and the dark flow is the walk's signature scene.

Puʻu o Lokuana's name refers to a heavy fall of cinder. Mauna Loa's 1868 eruption and earthquakes devastated Kahuku; the Brown family escaped the advancing lava, and Annie Brown Spencer's diary describes more than 3,000 shocks in 12 days. A U.S. military radar station stood atop the cone in the 1940s and was decommissioned in 1947; concrete footings remain in the cinder quarry. A petroglyph is also near the route, but its history is unknown. Do not step on or disturb it.

Use the Kahuku Visitor Contact Station parking area. The marked trailhead is farther north beside Kahuku Road at the cone; the current park map does not show a separate lot there. This undeveloped trail is closed to pets. Watch for wasps in the grass and stay back from the cinder-pit edge.