Hiking Hualālai

The majestic volcano offers much to explore— and memories to last a lifetime.

BY PETER THOENE

ERIC FRANKE

On this crisp morning, I’m standing on Hualālai mountain, 6,000 feet above sea level, staring into the rusty black abyss of a volcanic fissure. Lime-green ferns cling to the pit’s vertical walls, and birds chirp overhead, their feathers flashing in my peripheral vision. I close my eyes, letting my mind ponder this land beneath me—both the immense forces that created it and the stories that surround it.

Now dormant, Hualālai erupted centuries ago. In 1801, the Ka‘ūpūlehu lava flow—Ka‘ūpūlehu means “the roasted breadfruit” in Hawaiian—started at about 6,000 feet and streamed down to sea. Kona legend says that two sisters, Pāhinahina and Kolomu‘o, were roasting breadfruit on the mountain when an old woman asked for some. Unbeknownst to the sisters, the woman was the fire goddess Pele. Only Pāhi nahina shared her breadfruit, and Pele advised her to tell her parents to place a lepa (flag) on the side of their home for protection. That was the night Hualālai erupted, destroying the breadfruit grove at Kāmeha‘ikana, but Pāhinahina’s house was spared.

I open my eyes and take in the view of the trail—a narrow dirt track that has delivered me steadily uphill through thickets of native bushes. Trees with low-hanging branches occasionally bear fluorescent tape to flag twists and turns on the path. Access to this exclusive hike is through the Kona-based adventure-tour company Hawai‘i Forest & Trail, where I once served as a guide. Today, however, I’m with a group led by Mark Frazier, one of the outfit’s veteran guides, and soon we’re peering into yet another huge volcanic crater.

Only hours earlier, we began our expedition at Hawai‘i Forest & Trail’s headquarters, which is roughly a 20-minute drive from Hualālai Resort. We sipped Kona coffee and hot tea as Mark explained the day’s itinerary, and then we loaded ourselves into the company’s van and began our drive up the volcano. After bumping off-road for a bit, the van parked at an elevation of just over 5,000 feet. We geared up for our trek, with one of Hualālai’s massive craters and the magnificent Kohala coast already in view.

We walked through a canopy of centuries-old forest—most of its plants, such as ‘ōhi‘a lehua and koa trees and ‘ōhelo berry bushes, are found nowhere else on earth—and soon came upon a lava tube. The subterranean cave’s entrance was so camouflaged by bushes, it would have been easy to miss had Mark not pointed it out. Using ropes, we descended into the cavern with only the light from our entry point and another hole overhead guiding where we could put our hands and feet. As our eyes adjusted, we picked our way through the tube, slowly climbing up and out of a collapsed section. We emerged into bright daylight only about 25 yards from where we started, but the time spent underground was a bit disorienting and made the tube seem much longer.

Climbing still further up the trail eventually brought us to the awe-inspiring vantage at 6,000 feet, and now we’re heading back down, looking for a spot to eat lunch. We decide to picnic in the grass under huge old-growth trees, and it’s here that I catch my first-ever glimpse

Trekking to hidden volcanic craters, exploring dimly lit lava tubes, and spotting such rare birds as the ‘i‘iwi are a few of the experiences that hikers are likely to log during a Hawai‘i Forest & Trail–guided hike of Hualālai’s slopes.

of an ‘i‘iwi. The endangered bird with brilliant red and black plumage has all but vanished on several of the islands due to habitat loss, but its cultural significance remains: Hawaiians have long celebrated the bird in song, dance, and stories.

Somehow, Hualālai doesn’t get as much attention as the island’s other volcanoes, maybe because it’s not the tallest (Maunakea), not the most massive (Maunaloa), not the last to erupt (Kīlauea), and not the oldest (Kohala). But Hualālai might just be my favorite. Every day, she hides her majesty in plain sight. In the district of Kona, we walk, jog, bike, and drive on Hualālai’s lava flows every day.

It’s difficult to leave Hualālai’s enchanting slopes and descend back to sea level, but the promise of capping the day off with a tour and tasting at Ola Brew (see “Local Brews,” at right) lessens the sting a bit. Also comforting is the fact that I’ve never felt as close to Hualālai—the backdrop of my childhood—as I do today. It is the afterglow of a day spent in nature experiencing a hidden slice of what makes Hawai‘i island unlike any other place in the world.

Local Brews

After exploring Hualālai’s hidden craters and crawling through a lava tube with Hawai‘i Forest & Trail, our group finishes the day with what else but a beer—and not just any beer. An end-ofhike stop at Ola Brew Co. (olabrewco.com) gives us the chance to get off our feet and taste a variety of beers, ciders, and hard seltzers, all of which feature local ingredients and are brewed and canned in Hawai‘i. The Kailua-Kona brewery supports farmers who grow fruit on the slopes of the Hualālai volcano, purchasing edible produce that’s not pretty enough to sell on store shelves. Ola Brew presses the fruit for juice to craft its delicious tropical ciders, and it captures the CO 2 naturally created in the brewing process to carbonate its hard seltzer. The brewers do all the work so we can kick back with a cider and watch the clouds around Hualālai slowly move upslope. —P.T.