Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park

Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park "Connecting People with the Park" through education, volunteerism, and philanthropy. PO Box 653
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Happy Aloha Friday — and Happy Juneteenth. 🌈🌺Today we celebrate freedom, resilience, and the ongoing promise of justice ...
06/19/2026

Happy Aloha Friday — and Happy Juneteenth. 🌈🌺

Today we celebrate freedom, resilience, and the ongoing promise of justice for all. And today, we're sharing this — ānuenue, a rainbow, arcing over Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kīlauea, with volcanic mist rising below and the most extraordinary sky above.

In Hawaiian culture, ānuenue is sacred — a bridge between worlds, a sign of divine presence, a symbol historically associated with aliʻi and the connection between the human and spiritual realms. On a day like Juneteenth, that imagery feels especially meaningful. Rainbows have a way of showing up exactly when they're needed.

Wishing everyone a beautiful, restful, joyful Friday. Aloha. 🌺

📸 Photo by Janice Wei

Red bird. Red blossoms. Pure Hawaiʻi. 🌺This is an ʻApapane — one of Hawaiʻi's native honeycreepers — perched in an ʻōhiʻ...
06/18/2026

Red bird. Red blossoms. Pure Hawaiʻi. 🌺

This is an ʻApapane — one of Hawaiʻi's native honeycreepers — perched in an ʻōhiʻa lehua tree inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. These two are inseparable: the ʻApapane drinks nectar from those iconic red blossoms, and in return helps pollinate the tree that much of Hawaiʻi's native forest depends on. It's a partnership that's been going on here for thousands of years.

Listen for their bubbly, cheerful song on your next visit — they're chatty birds and love to announce themselves from the canopy. Protecting this park means protecting moments like this one. Plan your visit at fhvnp.org. 🌺

📸 Photo by Janice Wei

Take a second to look at the scale of this. 🚁Those tiny orange figures are USGS scientists — and they are standing on th...
06/17/2026

Take a second to look at the scale of this. 🚁

Those tiny orange figures are USGS scientists — and they are standing on the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu, inside Kīlauea's summit crater, on lava that erupted not long ago. The helicopter behind them looks like a toy against the sheer size of that hardened lava surface. Steam still rises from cracks at the edges. This is what "fieldwork" means for a volcanologist — landing inside an active crater to collect samples and data, on ground that was literally liquid rock not too long ago.

Humans are, frankly, a little wild. In the best way. The next time you check a hazard map or an eruption forecast for Kīlauea, this is where some of that information comes from — scientists walking out onto the literal volcano to get it. Respect. 🌋🌺

📸 Photo by Janice Wei

06/17/2026

Another friendly reminder that the Kahuku Unit Site Management Plan and Environmental Assessment is open for comment!

Join park staff this evening in Nāʻālehu to weigh in on the options for access, recreation and conservation that the park is planning for Upper Kahuku, Lower Kahuku and Kahuku-Pōhue. This incredible ahupuaʻa (land division) stretches from the coast to more than 12,000 feet on the remote, rugged slopes of Mauna Loa volcano.

When: Tuesday, June 16 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Nāʻālehu Community Center, 95-5635 Hawaiʻi Belt Rd.

You can review the plan and learn more online. Go to https://parkplanning.nps.gov/KahukuSitePlan to view the Plan/EA, take a visual tour through the Story Map, and submit your comments.

NPS Photo/Hikers on the forested Pali o Kaeo Trail in the Kahuku Unit of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

🛍️ CALLING ALL VENDORS & CRAFTERS! Want to share your handmade goods with the community? We'd love to have you at the ta...
06/16/2026

🛍️ CALLING ALL VENDORS & CRAFTERS! Want to share your handmade goods with the community? We'd love to have you at the table. 👉 You can sign up on our website www.fhvnp.org or give us a call.

🎄 Christmas in July — Aloha style! 🌺

Join the Friends of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park for a FREE day of summer cheer at the Kahuku Unit! This is a make up event for our beloved Holiday's in Kahuku that takes place annually in December.

📅 Saturday, July 18
⏰ 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
📍 Kahuku Unit, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park — near Mile Marker 70.5 on Highway 11

Bring the whole 'ohana for handmade crafts, food, music, and entertainment — plus FREE ice shave and FREE face painting for the keiki! 🍧

We will also have a FREE shuttle to and from the parking area.

Co-sponsored by Hawai'i Pacific Parks.

ℹ️ More info: www.fhvnp.org or call 808-985-7373

Ka'ū News

06/16/2026

Yesterday you saw what it looks like when a tephra tornado paths through the camera. Today — here's what it looks like from the outside. 🌋

This formed right in the middle of Halemaʻumaʻu during Episode 49 on June 14. Watch it build. The north vent was fountaining to 700 feet at peak, pushing a plume to 18,000 feet above sea level, and pumping out lava at a peak rate of 415 cubic yards per second. That is an almost incomprehensible amount of energy moving through a very small space — and apparently enough to spin up tornadoes out of ash and tephra.

We here at Friends are still not sure we fully understand what drives these exactly. The heat differential, the pressure dynamics of the plume, the wind — probably all of it. But Kīlauea keeps producing things that make even the scientists lean forward in their chairs. 49 episodes in and this volcano is still finding new ways to surprise us.

We**am links and the latest updates at fhvnp.org. 🌺

📹 Video courtesy of USGS we**ams

06/15/2026

🌋 Episode 49 is over — and we need to talk about what happened to the we**am yesterday.

This is a tephra tornado. We watched it spin up off the eruption plume during yesterday's episode and move across the caldera floor — and then it hit the camera. What you're seeing in this clip isn't a filter or an effect. That's volcanic ash, Pele's hair, and tephra fragments swirling directly in front of the lens.

Episode 49 began with 5 hours of precursory lava overflows from the north vent starting at 4:10 a.m. on June 14, before full fountaining kicked off at 9:36 a.m. The north vent reached a maximum height of 700 feet by 10:30 a.m. and erupted for 7.5 hours, sending an estimated 6.5 million cubic yards of lava across the caldera floor before ending at 5:05 p.m. The plume climbed to 18,000 feet above sea level. And somewhere in the middle of all that — tephra tornadoes.

Stay with us tomorrow for another angle that puts the full scale of these things into perspective. We**am links and updates at fhvnp.org. 👀🌺

This eruption is within a closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Please follow all park closures and stay on designated overlooks.

📹 Video courtesy of USGS we**ams

06/14/2026

Another record. 🌋

Episode 49 is underway. Lava fountains are lighting up Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea's summit — and with it, this eruption pushes past its own record yet again. Less than two weeks ago, Episode 48 became the most fountaining episodes ever recorded in an episodic eruption, surpassing Puʻuʻōʻō's 47. Now there's 49.

Summit inflation had been building steadily since Episode 48 ended on June 1, with strong glow visible from both vents and degassing plumes rising from Halemaʻumaʻu day and night. The volcano wound up — and now she's letting go again.

These episodes typically last less than 12 hours — if you're watching, now is the time. Live we**am links and links to updates at fhvnp.org. Eyes up. 👀🌺

This eruption is within a closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Please follow all park closures and stay on designated overlooks.

📸Video courtesy of USGS Volcanoes

Halemaʻumaʻu means "house of the ʻamaʻu fern." 🌿This small cluster, pushing up through a field of fresh tephra with Maun...
06/14/2026

Halemaʻumaʻu means "house of the ʻamaʻu fern." 🌿

This small cluster, pushing up through a field of fresh tephra with Mauna Loa standing behind it, is exactly the plant that gave Kīlauea's most sacred crater its name. New ʻamaʻu fronds emerge in shades of red, orange, and yellow before maturing to green — and historically they grew so thickly around the crater rim that early Hawaiians named the place after them.

Halemaʻumaʻu is also known as the home of Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes — the literal "house" in the name. So when you see ʻamaʻu growing back into a landscape that volcanic activity just reshaped, you're watching something that has been happening here for as long as this place has had a name. The fern returns. The mountain remains. The name still fits. 🌺

📸 Photo by Janice Wei

06/13/2026

Friendly reminder that the Kahuku Unit Site Management Plan and Environmental Assessment is open for comment!

Join park staff on Saturday and weigh in on the options for access, recreation and conservation that the park is planning for Upper Kahuku, Lower Kahuku and Kahuku-Pōhue. This incredible ahupuaʻa (land division) stretches from the coast to more than 12,000 feet on the remote, rugged slopes of Mauna Loa volcano.

When: Saturday, June 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Kahuku Visitor Contact Station, Māmalahoa Highway (Hwy 11) near mile marker 70.5.

Can't make it Saturday?

Join us Tuesday, June 16 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Nāʻālehu Community Center, 95-5635 Hawaiʻi Belt Rd.

You can learn more online. Go to https://parkplanning.nps.gov/KahukuSitePlan to view the Plan/EA, take a visual tour through the Story Map, and submit your comments.

NPS Photo/Two visitors peer into a forested pit crater from the safe side of a wooden railing.

Address

PO Box 653
Volcano, HI
96785

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+18089857373

Website

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