Activities Vary at Hawaii Volcanoes for National Park Week

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is offering a variety of free activities as it celebrates National Park Week from April 20-28.

As part of the observance, the park will waive entry fees Monday through Friday, April 22-26.

The offerings include:

• A Kilauea Iki crater hike on Tuesday, April 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Meet master ranger volunteer Charlene Meyers at Kilauea Iki Overlook Parking Lot on Crater Rim Drive for a four-mile, three-hour hike through the rain forest and onto the crater floor of Kīlauea Iki. The crater was the site of huge lava fountains in 1959.
• A visit to Mauna Ulu on Wednesday, April 24, at 11 a.m., and again at 1 p.m., to view volcanic features like fissures and lava trees that were formed during the 1969-74 Mauna Ulu eruption. Meet master ranger volunteer Noel Eberz at the Mauna Ulu parking lot, four miles down Chain of Craters Road, for the one-mile, one-hour round-trip hike highlighting the process of plant survival in a harsh lava landscape.
• 

  The Pu`uloa Petroglyphs. NPS photo.

  Visit the Pu`uloa Petroglyphs on Thursday, April 25, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for a two-hour, 1.5-mile round-trip trek across ancient lava flows to the largest petroglyph field in Hawai‘i. Meet Park Ranger Adrian Boone at the Pu‘uloa Petroglyphs parking area, near the end of Chain of Craters Road (a 45-minute drive from the park entrance) to learn the meanings inherent in the rock carvings and gather a greater understanding of the native people who created them.

• Take park in a NPS Volunteer Day on Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. to noon for an opportunity to help save Hawai‘i’s native rainforest. Join forces with volunteers Jane and Paul Field to remove Himalayan ginger, faya, strawberry guava and other invasive non-native plants that threaten the native understory alongside Halema‘uma‘u Trail. Bring garden gloves. Meet the Fields at Kīlauea Visitor Center. Tools will be provided.

Participants in all the activities should wear sturdy hiking shoes and long pants and should bring a hat, raingear, day pack, snacks and water.

There are also regularly scheduled programs in the park and at the Kahuku Unit during National Park Week. For a complete listing, visit the park website at http://www.nps.gov/havo/parknews/20130319_pr.htm.

In addition, the Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park has special programs during National Park Week listed at http://fhvnp.org/events/.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes is one of five national park units on the Big Island. Pu‘uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park in South Kona is also free of charge on the NPS fee-free 2013 dates.

There is no admission at Pu‘ukoholā Heiau National Historic Site, Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, or along the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail.