Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has had an uptick in visitors since the long-awaited reopening of the Kilauea Overlook.
Last Tuesday, the overlook opened to the public for the first time in more than two years. It closed in 2018 during the Kilauea eruption and summit collapse, which damaged the area and made it unsafe.
Several cracks and gaping sinkholes on Crater Rim Trail leading to the overlook have been repaired, and barriers near the crater’s edge were upgraded. Visitors are urged to stay safe by staying on the trails and obeying all posted signs.
After closing at the beginning of the stay-at-home order in March, Crater Rim Drive opened on June 15 during the park’s phased reopening.
Mostly Hawaii residents have been returning as restrictions have loosened slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of visitors is much lower without tourists from the mainland and elsewhere.
“There have been more and more people visiting, especially on Tuesday with the opening of the overlook,” park spokesman Ben Hayes said.
In July, the park had 36,164 visitors, which is about 18% of the 201,554 visitors in July 2017, the year before the eruption forced the park to close.
“Before the second interisland quarantine, we had a lot of people from Oahu coming to the park,” Hayes said. “Now it’s mostly been Big Island residents looking to do something different.”
Lance and Veronica Decker of Pahoa decided to visit the overlook to see it for the first time since the 2018 eruption.
“We haven’t seen it since before the eruption, and it’s amazing how different the caldera looks,” Veronica Decker said. “The lava used to glow, and steam was always rising from the crater.”
The Deckers experienced the Kilauea eruption about a mile away from the lava flow in Puna.
“It was an intense and scary experience,” Veronica Decker said. “We’re hoping Kilauea rests for a while.”
To safely reopen, the park has followed the guidance set by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the National Parks Service. Visitors must maintain at least 6 feet of distance between others and are encouraged to wear a face mask.
While visiting the park Tuesday, Big Island residents Sheldon, Claire and Reyn Furupani noticed how much room they had to walk around at the overlook, which normally would be bustling with tourists.
“I’ve never seen it this empty before,” Sheldon Furupani said. “We used to come with visiting friends and family all the time, and it was always filled to the brim.”
Most hiking trails are empty, and few if any people gather around the Steam Vents area, which before the pandemic was a popular spot for tourists. There also is plenty of room to roam around the overlook.
“The low numbers this summer are not surprising given the 14-day travel quarantine,” Hayes said. “However, the lack of visitors has seemed to help the environment and there haven’t been any nenes run over (by vehicles), which is usually a problem.”
Although the park was closed during the stay-at-home order, contractors were still allowed to work on disaster recovery efforts, which is why the overlook was able to reopen this month.
“The reopening of the Kilauea Overlook is a product of many unprecedented challenges we’ve faced while working on the area,” Hayes said. “The pandemic added so much complexity with contractors coming in and out of the park, it was difficult to manage.”
The opening of the overlook has brought the park one step closer to the normalcy felt before the 2018 eruption.
“We know how important outdoor spaces are, and parks are one of the only outdoor recreational activities available right now,” Hayes said. “We welcome visitors as long as it is safe to do so.”
Anyone interested in visiting the park can find more information on www.nps.gov/hawaiivolcanoes or by calling 808-985-6011.
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com