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COURTESY HAWAI‘I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
Hikers walking along the restored Kilauea Iki Trail.
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The Kilauea Iki Trail at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park reopened Saturday in its entirety.
About half of the trail had been open since April but the rest of the 4-mile loop had remained closed for repairs. The Kilauea Iki Trail and many park areas were severely damaged during the 2018 Kilauea Volcano eruption that generated more than 60,000 earthquakes at the summit.
Damage to the trail included areas of significant rock fall along Byron Ledge.
The national park said its nonprofit partner, the Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, provided financial support for the repairs, which were carried out by the park’s trail crew assisted by trail crew members from other national parks.
Acting HVNP Superintendent Rhonda Loh said the park is looking forward to reopening more areas in the coming months.
The Kilauea Iki Trail is one of its most popular treks, dropping 400 feet from the summit to the crater floor. Hikers are able to walk along the crater floor that as recently as 1959 was a seething lava lake with fountains up to 1,900 feet high.
Today marks the one- year anniversary of the park reopening following an unprecedented 134-day closure due to the Kilauea eruption. For more updates and a chronology of park recovery efforts, visit nps.gov/havo/recovery.htm.