Chain of Craters Road
Kīlauea summit → Hōlei Sea Arch, HI · ~19 miles one-way · half day
Chain of Craters Road drops about 3,700 feet from the Kīlauea summit down the volcano’s East Rift to the Pacific, entirely within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park — past pit craters and old lava flows to sea cliffs, ending where eruptions buried the road itself.
Good to know: A park entrance fee applies and there’s no food, water, or fuel on the road — fill up first. Eruptions or vog can close it on short notice; check the NPS alerts before you go.
From a volcano summit to the sea.
One road carries you from a steaming volcanic summit through raw lava fields to a wave-battered sea arch — and stops abruptly where the volcano reclaimed the pavement.
States on this route
The signature stops
What to pull over for.
01Kīlauea summitthe high start in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park — open the guideHI02Maunauluan overlook of lava flows that crossed the road in the 1970sHI03Puʻuloa Petroglyphsa boardwalk to one of Hawaiʻi’s largest petroglyph fieldsHI04Hōlei Sea Archa 90-foot lava arch above the surf near the road’s endHIPlan the drive
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