Hawaii Volcanoes NP - The Lava Viewing Area at Ocean Entry (USA)

After our overwhelming lava hike to an active flowing lava flow in the Kilauea East Rift Zone, today we wanted to ride the bikes again to the Kalapana Lava Viewing Area, from where you can see the Ocean Entry from afar.

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From where can you see the Ocean Entry of the Lava?

In general, the Ocean Entry of the Lava can be observed from 3 different sides:

From the West Side – End of Chain of Craters Road
From the water – With a boat tour
From the East Side – Kalapana Lava Viewing Area

The west side of Ocean Entry can only be reached by car through the main entrance of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. From the main entrance on Highway 11, drive about 35 kilometers along Chain of Craters Road to the end at Holei Sea Arch. From here it is then only on foot another 8 kilometers to the Viewing Area. There is no bike rental here.

The Ocean Entry is the closest you can definitely get with one of the many boat tours. The boats really drive up to a few meters directly to the lava and you can watch wonderfully how the liquid lava flows into the sea. To see the Ocean Entry from the land, we chose the Kalapana Lava Viewing Area.

Sign Lava Viewing Area

The way to the Lava Viewing Area from the Chain of Craters Road

Boat tours to Ocean Entry

View of one of the Lava Boat Tours

By bike to the Lava Viewing Area of the Ocean Entry

By car we drove down Highway 130 and then turned back into the Kaimu-Chain of Craters Road. You can simply go as far as to start the various bike rental stations. Free parking is available on the right and left side of the street and you are even instructed.

From here there are two different ways to get to the Kalapana Lava Viewing Area:

(1) You’re running. This can be exhausting and take a long time, because you cover a total of about 8 miles here and walk one-way about 1.5 to 2 hours over an unpaved road.

(2) You can borrow a bicycle. It’s not even that expensive. We each borrowed one for 10 US dollars and even had a belt bag with first aid material (patches etc.), a rain poncho, a flashlight for the bike and a small bottle of water. For the price really unbeatable. Well, it has to be said that the bikes were really very simple and no longer the latest. But they were supposed to take us from A to B and they did that.

Bike Rental, Bicycle Rental, Lava Viewing, Ocean Entry, Bike Rental, Kalapana, Big Island, Hawaii, USA, Travel Report

Bicycle rental in Kalapana

The Lava Viewing Area in Kalapana

The route to the Lava Viewing Area is very simple: you only drive straight until you get to a sign with the indication that the Lava Viewing Area is located on the left. After we had parked and connected our bikes on the road, we ran to the viewing area. There were already a lot of people here who had already looked for a place to wait until dusk and watch the Ocean Entry.

The way to Ocean Entry

Entrance to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

A few of the houses on the Kaimu-Chain of Craters Rd

Our bikes at the lava fields

Signpost to The Lava Viewing Area

The Lava Viewing Area in Kalapana

The view from the Lava Viewing Area

View of the Lava Ocean Entry

We were a bit confused at first because we really didn’t see anything. Unfortunately, this did not get any better in the following hour. The Ocean Entry is about 1 to 1.5 miles away from the Lava Viewing Area, i.e. you can see very little at the moment (as of the beginning of November 2017). There was a bit of steam to see from time to time when the waves swept over the cliffs, but otherwise you couldn’t see anything.

The current Ocean Entry

The rough south coast of Big Island

Lava Viewing Area

Sunset at the Viewing Area

We sat here for about an hour and waited until we made our way back. We had to bring the bikes back on time by 8 p.m. at the latest, otherwise we would have had to pay a penalty fee. So nothing like going on the bike. Unfortunately, ten minutes later it started to rain terribly, so that we arrived at the parking lot again wet and full of dirt and dirt. Luckily, we had change gears in the car.

Small tip: It makes sense to inform yourself in advance whether there is something to be seen at the Lava Viewing Area and whether the Ocean Entry is active at all. This is best done through the official site of the National Park Service.

Unsere Reiseberichte von Hawaii

Die Inseln von Hawaii hatten wir ja schon während unserer Weltreise auf dem Sprung von Nordamerika nach Australien besucht. Hier waren wir auf O’ahu, Kaua’i, Maui und Big Island. Da wir so begeistert von den unterschiedlichen Inseln und der abwechlungsreichen Natur waren, konnten wir so all das nachholen, was wir das letzte Mal nicht geschafft hatten oder was zum Teil auch gar nicht möglich war. So konnte man 2015 z.B. keine fließende Lava auf Big Island sehen, da diese nicht wie sonst Richtung Meer geflossen ist, sondern in Richtung eines bewohntes Dorfes. Und dies wurde zur Sicherheit aller für den Zugang gesperrt. Seit 2016 fließt die Lava des Kilauea aber wieder Richtung Ozean und so konnten wir auch endlich einer unserer größten Wünsche verwirklichen: Mal ganz nah an fließender Lava zu stehen. Zudem wollten wir auf O’ahu in der Hanauma Bay schnorcheln, den Koko Head Krater besteigen, eine Hula-Show sehen, das Feuerwerk des Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort bestaunen, den Sonnenaufgang auf dem 3.055 Meter hohen Haleakala genießen und die Schildkröten am Strand entlang der Road to Hana beobachten. So viele Sachen, von denen wir letztes Mal gar nicht wussten oder diese nicht geschafft hatten.