Hawaii Volcanoes National Park offers the following free hikes and programs during National Park Week, which runs from today through April 28. Entrance fees are waived Monday through Friday. Participants should wear sturdy hiking shoes and long pants. Bring a hat, rain gear, day pack, snacks and water.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park offers the following free hikes and programs during National Park Week, which runs from today through April 28. Entrance fees are waived Monday through Friday. Participants should wear sturdy hiking shoes and long pants. Bring a hat, rain gear, day pack, snacks and water.
Master ranger volunteer Charlene Meyers will lead a four-mile Kilauea Iki Crater hike through the rain forest and onto the crater floor from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday. Participants should meet Meyers at the Kilauea Iki Overlook parking lot on Crater Rim Drive to learn how the 1959 eruption forever changed this landscape.
Master ranger volunteer Noel Eberz will lead “Amazing Mauna Ulu” at 11 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Hikers will explore volcanic features such as fissures and lava trees formed during the 1969-74 Mauna Ulu eruption. The one-mile hike will last one hour and highlight the process of plant survival on the harsh lava landscape. The public should meet Eberz at the Mauna Ulu parking lot on Chain of Craters Road.
Park ranger Adrian Boone leads a 1.5-mile round-trip hike across ancient lava flows to the Puuloa Petroglyphs from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday. Hikers will discover the meanings inherent in these rock carvings and gather a greater understanding of the people who created them. Participants should meet Boone at the Puuloa Petroglyphs parking area.
Volunteers Jane and Paul Field will head an NPS Volunteer Day effort to save Hawaii’s native rain forest from 9 a.m. to noon April 27. Participants will remove Himalayan ginger, faya, strawberry guava and other invasive non-native plants that threaten the native understory alongside Halemaumau Trail. Participants should bring garden gloves and meet the Fields at the Kilauea Visitor Center; tools will be provided.
For a complete list of regularly scheduled programs, visit nps.gov/havo/parknews/20130319_pr.htm. The Friends of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has also scheduled special programs during National Park Week. For more information, visit fhvnp.org/events.
West Hawaii parks are also offering events during National Park Week.
Puukohola National Historical Site is hosting a Parker School fifth-grade art exhibit Monday through Wednesday at the park visitor center. The exhibit will present the school children’s representation of Hawaiian artist Herb Kane, and his influence interpreting the stories of Hawaii’s national parks with his artistic impressions. For more information, call the park’s visitor center at 882-7218.
Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park will have daily ranger programs at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. An all-day program on ulana niu, or coconut weaving, is scheduled for Wednesday. Admission fees are waived Monday through Friday. For more information, call the park’s visitor center at 328-2326.