Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park · Hawaii

Puna Coast Trail

9.5 mi of trail, end to end · Puʻuloa Petroglyphs Trail: 1.4 mi round trip in the Service's write-up · about 200 ft of climbing · 9 ft–137 ft · native surface · trail class Developed, Moderately Developed · hiking

137 ft 21 ft · 3.5 mi high 137 ft

Puʻuloa Petroglyphs Trail 1.4 mi round trip · the Park Service's write-up

60-90 Minutes · no dogs

Start Puʻuloa Trailhead on Chain of Craters Road

Pu‘u Loa Petroglyphs

Walk in the footsteps of the kūpuna (elders) to Pu`uloa (hill of long life), a sacred and awe-inspiring gallery of ki`i pōhaku (images carved in stone). These simple etchings document the life and culture of the native Hawaiian people. It brought with hopes of receiving the blessings of a long and prosperous life.

This coastal trail traverses a 500-550 year old lava field to one of Hawai`i's most extensive petroglyph fields. A site that has approximately 23,000 petroglyphs, many viewable at a boardwalk constructed for this purpose

Difficulty: Moderate

Distance and hiking time: 1.4 miles (2.25km) round trip. Approximately 1.0 - 1.5 hours.

Trail begins: Pu'uloa parking area on Chain of Craters Road.

Safety: Hiking on flow fields can be hazardous due to deep earth cracks, uneven and unstable terrain, and razor-sharp lava.

The petroglyphs are very fragile. Stay on the boardwalk. Walking on the lava surface will fragment the delicate petroglyphs and destroy them.

Accessibility Trail is over uneven, solidified lava fields

This hike on nps.gov

On the parks map

All 50 trails in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National ParkFind a trailOn the parks mapPark on nps.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the National Park Service's public trails layer, the trailheads and the waterfalls, views, peaks and historic places along them the Service's public points of interest, read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end. The write-ups are the Service's own "things to do" text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the park's own site before you go.