Hawaii – Day 5 – Travels with Carolyne

Big Island – Day 5 of a 8-Day Trip in Hawaii

Day 5 consisted of another visit to the Hawaii Volcano National Park and involved driving to various locations, and wandering for about 30 minutes to an hour at each spot. Stops includes the Sulphur Banks, Steam Vents, Kilauea Outlook, and the Chain of Craters.

Day 5
Big Island

After breakfast at the house, we returned to the Hawaii Volcano National Park. First stop was the Sulphur Banks trail. The area has a sulphur smell due to the volcanic gases and steam rising from below ground. The Sulphur Banks trail is paved/wooden pathway and takes about 20 minutes. The route also leads directly to the Kilauea Outlook.

Kilauea is an active volcano and depending on the volcanic activity, this outlook and the Chain of Craters can be closed to the public. The most recent eruption occurred on December 23, 2024.

We then started the Chain of Craters drive. The Chain of Craters is a 19 mile paved route in the Hawaii Volcano National Park with multiple scenic stops – various craters (Luamanu, Puhimau Crater, Pauahi Crater), Kealakomo Outlook, Pu’uloa Petroglyphs, and Holei Sea Arch – just to name a few of the main stops. The drive with all the stops will take at least 4 hours. As you are driving down this route, you can see remnants of lava (now cooled and rocky) on both sides of the road.

There are many craters to stop at on the route, some grander than the others.

The Kealakomo Outlook offers amazing views. I remember it being very windy, but there are picnic tables so it would be a good spot to take in the views of where lava once flowed into the Pacific Ocean.

Next destination on the Chain of Craters was the Pu’uloa Petroglyphs. From the car parking, it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the petroglyphs. This is the largest grouping of petroglyphs in Hawaii.

The last stop on the Chain of Craters was the Holei Sea Arch. The Holei Sea Arch is a lava arch that extends into the Pacific Ocean. It is a bit hard to see from the picture unfortunately. After the Holei Sea Arch, we had to turn around and drive back on the Chain of Craters route to return to the entrance of the park.

By the time we reached the entrance of the park, it was dinner time. I really wanted to try Hawaiian shrimp so we picked the Hawaiian Shrimp Company for dinner.

The Hawaiian Shrimp Company is a stall in the food court in the Waiakea Centre. I ordered the short ribs and shrimp combo with macaroni salad and broccoli. The meal also came with two sauces – a spicy mayo aioli and a chilli sauce. The ribs were so flavourful, they needed nothing extra and the shrimp huge and tasty. The restaurant also gave me an extra rib, which was very nice of them!