(for a Yahoo! map of Puna Click here or go to Yahoo maps and type in 96749, which is the zip for Keaau, then you can zoom out.)

The Puna district is often referred to as the wild west by residents here. It is all the land from just above Hilo to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and all the land south of that. It is an area bigger than the island of Oahu with a population of about 34,000. It is underdeveloped, with a hodge-podge of towns and subdivisions scattered about. Many residents don't have county water, some still have party lines on their phones, and some don't even have electricity. I live in Puna, and I have electricity and a real phone - but I don't have county water and my house is on a dirt road. That's OK, I like it; I have one acre of land and not many neighbors, and I am within 6 blocks of the ocean.

Puna has many sights that visitors would be interested in, but not many that visitors are directed too. There are many bed and breakfasts or vacation rentals in the area for good prices, so many people end up exploring Puna anyway. Obviously, the most famous attraction in Puna is the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located just above the 28 mm on Highway 11. It is about 30 minutes from Hilo, up the mountain. It costs $10 a car for a 7-day pass for everything within it. Normally, visitors will start at the visitor’s center just inside the entrance and then travel in a counter-clockwise direction around Crater Rim Drive. This will take you past the Volcano house, the sulphur banks, the steam vents, Kilauea Military Camp, the Jaggar museum, Halemaumau crater, a bunch of rift zones, Devastation Trail, Thurston Lava tube, and some other craters. You could then backtrack to Chain of Craters Drive which heads down to the ocean, and the current lava flow. The lava flow is not always the easiest thing to see - especially when it moves to the middle of the old flow, or travels only. underground, but you usually can see at least a steam plume from the hairpin turn, and sometimes you can even see a red glow from there. Traveling all the way to the ocean is not always worth it, because you may have to hike over old lava just to get close to new lava. You should always check at the Visitor's Center because conditions change daily.

Volcano Village

If you are done at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and wondering what else to do, take a spin through Volcano Village. Volcano Village is a rather affluent little village, with a strong sense of community, hidden behind the forest along Highway 11. As you are leaving the park and heading back towards Hilo, take your first left into Old Volcano Road, it will curve around and run parallel with the highway but you will be unable to see the highway, and if you were on the highway the road and the town are completely hidden by the vegetation (rain forest). If you are heading up from Hilo, take a right at Wright rd (somewhere around the 27 mm) and then take your first left on Old Volcano Road. In Volcano Village are two gas stations, a hardware store, a cafe, a general store, an art gallery, and two restaurants. On Sundays, there is a farmers market at the Cooper Center, which is on Wright Rd., a little ways above the Old Volcano Rd. intersection. If you ever feel you want to retire to Hawaii, you should drive through volcano and take a look at the properties. They are secluded, cool, covered with tropical plants, and just nice. Oh, and don't forget the golf course, which is actually a little ways above Volcano Village off the highway across from the National Park. You could be the only person you know to have ever golfed on a live volcano. Also, behind the golf course is the Volcano Winery.

Heading back down the mountain, towards Hilo, you may want to stop at Akatsuka Orchid Gardens which is just below the 23 mm on the right side of the road. They let you tour the gardens, and will even ship live plants home to you. About 2 miles below that, turn fight at S. Glenwood Rd. As soon as you turn right, about 50 feet in, pull off to the shoulder of the road where it opens up. Look directly across the field just a little to the fight of the road. That half-collapsed mountain you see in the distance is Pu'u 'O'o vent, where the active lava flow has been coming from for the last decade or so. It will probably be belching out smoke - it's neat looking in the day, and sometimes glows red at night. For many years, that vent actually spewed lava 1500 feet up in the air imagine living on that farm on the left, and seeing that from your kitchen window every day. Don't worry though, the vent is downhill from you, and all the lava flows downhill from there. As you leave there, Hirano Store will be coming up on your left if you need food or gas.

Continuing down the mountain to Mountain View, you could stop at Tinny Fisher's Antiques on the right. There are a few more small towns after that, and then you come to Keaau. If you go straight at the stop light you'll be going back to Hilo, if you go right, you'll be going through Keaau and on into lower Puna via Highway 130. Keaau has some gas stations, a grocery store, a McDonalds, and an excellent plate lunch place called Verna's, just past McDonalds on the right. There is also a police and fire station in Keaau if you need them.

Pahoa

Heading south on 130, there is not too much to interest of visitors for a while. There will be a bunch of large subdivisions on both sides of the road, and you will get frequent views of the ocean in the distance if it is not too cloudy. I think that is the best thing about islands, no matter where you are, the ocean is visible to provide direction and beauty. Just before the 10 mile marker on Highway 130, Pahoa town will be on your right on old Government Road, or Pahoa Rd. I don't think there are any street signs, but you'll see the turn off. Most days there will be a fruit and vegetable stand on your fight as you enter, and another on your left after you go past the post office, if you want some papaya or pineapple or something.

Pahoa is actually a very interesting little town. It contains many restaurants; italian, thai, american, mexican, a laundrymat, 2 video stores, a gas station, a natural health food store, a grocery store, and art gallery, and a number of small antique or clothing shops and a pool. The pool is very clean, and nice, and free- and very under-used, so stop there if you want. On Saturdays and Sundays during the morning hours there is a happening farmers market in the parking lot of the Akebono Theatre. But, what makes Pahoa so very interesting is the people that live there. For some reason, this one street town whose storefronts and houses haven't been rebuilt or repainted since at least the 1950's, is full of hippies. They walk the streets with dreadlocks, without shoes, and shirts, with headdresses, and sarongs, and all manner of throwbacks. I don't have any idea how this town evolved into hippyville, but it is definitely noticeable... and interesting.

Ever heard of Puna butter? Well, in case I didn't mention it yet - Puna, and its many acres of undeveloped land, is a haven for marijuana growers. If you happen upon a patch in your travels, just leave. Don't pick any whatever you do, if you don't want the grower after you. Don't worry about reporting it to the police unless it's really massive - the police are understaffed and under-resourced in that area - but there is a regular eradication program with the helicopters and the vice officers that find plenty.

Leaving Pahoa, you have a couple of choices of which way to go. We'll continue on Highway 130 towards Kalapana. If you just turned on the road and went straight through Pahoa, after you go past the high school and stop at the stop sign, turn right, back onto Highway 130. You'll go past numerous other small subdivisions, and there are some unmarked steam vents on your left around the 15 mile marker, but I have never been and wouldn't know what they are like.

Lava flow

At the very end of Highway 130, the road will fork, and the right fork will dead end into the lava flow. This road used to go through to the National Park and meet up with the Chain of Craters Rd., but the lava covered it .. I don't know exactly when, maybe 10 years ago, and now it is inundated with hard black lava that covers the road for more than 12 miles wide. You'll know it because of the big yellow barricades and the huge black lava behind it. This is where people go when they are entering the current lava flow area from the Kalapana side. I don't think that this is 'allowed' for the public by the county civil defense, but the National Park goes in to access their land, and plenty people own land back here that was covered by lava - so I guess they still own it, it is just about 10 feet higher than it used to be, and completely barren.

The "road" is only accessible by 4 wheel drive vehicles, and it is not an easy ride. the last time I went to the lava flow was 2 years ago, and at that time we had to drive 4 miles in. The ride took over an hour and was awful. It's so bouncy that you constantly have to hold on with both hands, or walk if you can't stand the bumps. The first part of the road is very interesting - you go up a lava mound about 4 feet high, and then you are on the lava. Someone bulldozed a 'road' and you follow that. On your left, you'll see a mobile home, sitting on the middle of the black lava, with the surrounding property marked off by rocks. I guess someone lost their home and their land was covered, but they are making the best of a bad situation. To your right, where the forest still is, is where the Royal Gardens subdivision, of which 88 houses were covered by lava a few years ago, was. There are still some houses there but the area is not safe to live in. Another house was lost just last week (April 2000) to surface lava flows. If you keep going on the road, eventually it slopes down again, and the lava clears and you are on the highway again! The highway is surrounded on all four sides by old lava, but you can drive on it for a few hundred feet, and then it is climbing back up onto the old lava. There are 3 or four 'highway islands' like this. Another interesting thing is when you get close to the ocean, every once in a while you'll see a patch of palm trees or other vegetation that was missed by the lava, it just goes right around the patch, like that particular land is being 'spared' for some reason.

When we went to the lava flow, we drove for the 4 miles, until we saw the steam plume (created by hot lava entering the ocean), and then we walked to the ocean, and saw some slow moving surface flows of lava on the way. It was pretty amazing. We could get up to about 4 feet away from it. It was scary, and sometimes you looked down to see the rock you were standing on had hot lava flowing through the cracks beneath it.

One caveat, this is not an easy ride, it's not a safe walk, and it can actually be downright dangerous for the unprepared or unknowledgeable. Many people have had to be rescued by helicopters after attempting to hike to the flow, and one or two people have even died at the lava flow - the lava itself is normally not dangerous, because it is usually slow-moving, but other things can happen; like a bench (part of the cliff closest to the water) collapsing, or a methane gas explosion. The lava flow is sometimes easy to see, but most of the time very difficult to see - you'd be better off taking a helicopter tour, or talking to the National Park to see if any kind of ranger-guided tours are available.

So back on 130, just before it forked - if you take the left fork, it will dump you out on Highway 137, also known as the red road because the cinder they used to make it with is red. If you take a right here, this road will also dead end into the lava. There is a small turn out where you can park your car and eat at the snack bar, or walk up the 15 foot wall of lava straight ahead of you to check it out. This whole area used to be a small town, but it was covered by lava in 1990. If you have the stamina, you would walk about a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile over the old lava to the ocean to find an area that will be Puna's newest black sand beach .. in a hundred years or so. The residents (or some interested party) have recognized that this area will some day be a beach (heavy surf directly on the lava has already broken the lava into smooth rocks) and have had the foresight to symmetrically place coconuts around the bay in a half circle. About the time that these coconuts grow to adult coconut trees, the area will start to look like a an area fit to be in the movies ... as long as the lava doesn't turn that way again.

Kehena Beach

Continuing east on Hwy 137, you'll next come to Kehena beach. This is a black sand beach with the only access down a steep trail on the face of a cliff. There is some nude sunbathing here, and on a calm day - even some snorkeling and swimming. I would advise against swimming here though. The Hawaiian oceans could never be considered safe - but this is one of the least safe beaches on the island. You could sunbathe or play in the surf though - or just take a picture and enjoy the beauty. If standing on the road right in front of the beach, be sure and turn around - if there are no clouds in the sky you may be able to see smoke coming from Pu'u 'O'o vent, the vent that the active lava flow is coming from.

Mackenzie Beach Park

Continuing east on Hwy 137, you'll come along to Mackenzie Beach Park. There is no beach here so don't look for one. This is actually only a good place for sightseeing and picnicing and camping and fishing. The park is full of evergreen trees that have dropped a carpet of needles on the floor - and the coastline is 100 foot cliffs, that drop off into incredible blue, deep water. There is a restored portion of the old King's Highway (the foot path around the entire island marked by a rock wall used for travel in ancient times) through here - for anyone interested in Hawaiian history - just don't set up your campsite right in the middle of it, some ancient hawaiian entities may still need it.

Isaac Hale Beach Park

Continuing east on Hwy 137, you'll come to Isaac Hale Beach park. This is one of those beaches that will definitely be overrun by locals on the weekends - and probably even on the weekdays. You'll be lucky if your car even fits down the road. The surfing and boogie boarding are good here, which make it a local's haven. Try stop and get some shave ice (snow cone) and maybe take the path above the boat ramp to the warm springs if it's not too crowded. Other than that, your best bet would be to go down the way a bit to Ahalenui Beach Park, and see what the crowd is like there.

Kapoho

Continuing on Hwy 137, the road curves north, and takes you to Kapoho Vacationland Subdivision. If you drive through here, you'll see the huge tide pools at the water, creating sheltered pools for snorkeling or swimming. This is a good place to look for a oceanfront vacation rental before you come. Nice houses with good ocean access (no beach though). Just past Kapoho Vacationland is Kapoho Beach Lots. The beach lots are gated, so you won't be able to explore in here, but if you manage to get a house in here, you are in for a great time. Most of the houses have their own private pond, heated by geothermal activity. My husband and I stayed at a house there for 3 days last year - and it was great. We had the ocean about 20 feet away, and a heated pond 5 steps from the back door.

Across the street from the entrance to Kapoho Beach Lots is a gated entrance to a pasture. Beyond the pasture is a path that goes to green lake - but the gate is locked and guarded by a security guard. I am not sure what the story is behind this - but if you had plans to visit green lake, forget it.

Continuing North on 137, the next road will be the lighthouse road on your right, and Highway 132 on your left. If you turn right to the lighthouse, watch the lava on the right side of the road. Every once in a while you might see a pipe or an antenna sticking out of it. - All of that used to be the small town of Kapoho. It was covered by lava sometime in the 1960's- but, inexplicably, the lava parted to go around the lighthouse. If you drive all the way to the end you'll see the light house and how the lava went around it, but spared it. Past that pullout is yet more lava - if you want to you can walk to the ocean, but it is not a must-see. My husband and I drive the bulldozed 4 wheel drive lava road to the right over the hill and to the ocean and follow it to the tide pools to take the dogs swimming or three fingers for fishing. Be forewarned, the tidepools can be dangerous if the surf is high here - I am missing a 2 inch hunk of skin from my right leg after being scraped across the rocks here from high waves.

Don't even try following Hwy 137 the rest of the way through to Hawaiian Shores. The road is too bad - instead, go up Hwy 132, be sure to follow it around to the right at the intersection with the papaya trees on your left, and you'll see Lava Tree State Park on your right. This is an interesting park with a walking trail that takes you back to an old eruption. There are holes in the ground, and molds where the trees used to be, because the lava covered the ground, but the living trees were destroyed slower, and there was no more of a flow to fill in the holes.