Puʻuloa Petroglyphs Trail

From the pullout, the path crosses a gently rolling bedrock field toward the low wooden boardwalk. There is little shade. Pāhoehoe can look smooth from the road, but on foot it breaks into lumps, gaps and sharp edges; deep cracks and unstable rock call for slower steps and shoes that cover your toes. The terrain has no sustained climb, but its irregular surface can make each mile feel longer than a paved walk. Park staff sometimes use ahu, or rock markers, on trails. Don’t make new stacks or move ones you find; extra markers can disorient hikers and may be culturally offensive.

An elevated boardwalk makes a short loop through one section of the carvings. It is the main payoff and the point where you turn back toward the pullout. Look down for cup-like pits, circles, lines and humanlike forms cut into the lava. Stay on the boards: stepping onto the field, rubbing the marks or chalking them damages a fragile cultural site. For a photo, include some of the boardwalk with the carvings in the foreground; it shows both the images and the care taken to protect them.

Puʻuloa is translated as “long hill” or “Hill of long life.” More than 23,000 images have been recorded here, and roughly 84 percent are poho, cup-like depressions. Others include circles, geometric designs, human figures, canoe-sail shapes and feathered-cape forms. The place is sacred, particularly to people of Kalapana, and sits in the Pānau Nui ahupuaʻa on Kīlauea’s southern flank. Keep that context with you as you walk: this is a cultural landscape, not just an outdoor gallery.

Many poho are associated with piko, a newborn’s umbilical cord. In a tradition documented here, a cord was placed in a hollow, covered with a stone and left with hopes for the child’s long life. Anthropologist Martha Beckwith’s 1914 field notes recount a woman whose mother had brought her cord to Puʻuloa, and who later returned with the cords of her own fifteen children. An earlier written account from 1823 read the markings as notes of people traveling around the island. Interpretations also connect the images with family custom, longevity and well-being, events, boundaries and trails. There is no single simple code to crack on a short visit; the field is a record of lives and relationships.

Use the Puʻuloa Petroglyphs parking pullout at milepost 16.5 on Chain of Craters Road. An emergency call box is at the pullout. Carry your own water, food, a hat, sunscreen and rain gear; the exposed coast can be hot, dry, wet or windy. Pets may be taken along the road to Puʻuloa but are prohibited on park trails, including this one. The park rates the hike moderate, mostly for the rough lava underfoot rather than a long climb.