Volcano

I posted a note on general Hawaii boards but someone suggestec maybe this board. and I agree

We are booked into Poipu on Kauai in late June and we want to see the volcano flow. either before or after. We have been to volcano twice but have not yet seen the flow. Last tiem we saw the steam where it entered ocean, but that was on SW side.

We can get a time share at Sea Mountain but learned flow is now on Kalapana side. So think we may need to stay in Hilo.

Does the Park Service still do the Ranger tours to the flow now that it ia outside the Park?

we proably will also stay in Kona, but that is later plan

Volcano

By June the lava may be flowing in a completely different area.

Here is an article from a few days ago that says lava has started to flow toward the park again.

honoluluadvertiser.com/article/…BACKISSUES

So my thought is that you ought to stay where you want to %26amp; if you have to drive a little more for the night that you want to see the lava, it wouldn%26#39;t be that big of a deal just for the one time.

Volcano

As I said by PM, what dusty said about the lava flow moving.

However, I would stay in Volcano or Hilo. The night drive from VNP lava hike to Sea Mountain would be dark and not great at all, and if from Kalapana would be really long.

The distance doesn%26#39;t seem so much but there%26#39;s a long stretch of lower speed limit on the Ka%26#39;u side of the park and there%26#39;s really nothing in the way of light.

Punalu%26#39;u could be a real nice place to mellow out and see low key Hawai%26#39;i, but as a base with a night activity I wouldn%26#39;t recommend it, unless the money saved makes it worthwhile maybe.

Also it%26#39;s nice to have some close by options for food and shopping, which the Village has and Hilo even more so.

Also if the flow turns out to be a no go there%26#39;s a lot to do around Hilo and in Puna and it is a long drive from Sea Mountain.

It%26#39;s up to you and it wouldn%26#39;t be horrible, but it wouldn%26#39;t be my first choice.

To answer your other question, no, the Rangers stay in the park. Hawai%26#39;i County Civil Defense runs the current lava viewing site, and it is all private land there so no one is allowed to wander anywhere except parking lot to viewing area ... no guide is needed there.

The VNP does have information posted about how to get to the lava viewing.

Lavaguyd, who posts here, offers personalized tours that sound very interesting.

I do think the lava flow could shift. Volcano is a central location and you can hardly go wrong picking it (unless the summit vent starts belching columns of fire, in which case all bets are off in any case).

June is a great time of year to visit. The lava could change at any time and checking in with this forum for updates on the flow will prove very helpful. If you can manage to stay in Volcano Village or Hilo (depending on where the lava is flowing) that would be so much easier for you. However having a time share at Sea Mountain sure is a plus and the drive from there to the flow is certainly easier than from Kailua-Kona or the Kohala area. Many visitors do this as a very long day trip from the west side.. you have cut that trip off by almost 45 mins... I am glad you will try to stay in Kailua-Kona during your visit and we look forward to those questions.

Thanks for the help here. We decided to book at Kona Coast where we have time share points we could use, and forget volcano. Maybe next time flow will be closer. We have been to volcano twice.