The Puu Puai Overlook and parking lot in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are temporarily closed to protect breeding and nesting nene, or Hawaiian geese, in the area.
The Pu‘u Pua‘i Overlook and parking lot in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are temporarily closed to protect breeding and nesting nene, or Hawaiian geese, in the area.
The gate is secured at the entrance to the parking lot, near the intersection of Chain of Craters Road and Crater Rim Drive. Visitors are able to hike about 0.4 miles of Devastation Trail from the Devastation Trail parking lot to a trail sign marking the closure.
In 1952, only 30 nene remained statewide. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park began efforts to recover the imperiled geese in the 1970s. The Nene Recovery Program continues today, and more than 200 birds thrive in the park from sea level to about 8,000 feet.
Pu‘u Pua‘i is a massive reddish-brown cindercone that formed during an eruption at Kilauea Iki crater in 1959. Evidence of this eruption is visible in the form of small tephra cinders that blanket the ground along old Crater Rim Drive toward Keanakako‘i Crater.
