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Secondary roads

Other, secondary roads link the Hawaii Belt Road with some of the island’s finest scenery and hiking areas, particularly the Kohala Peninsula and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Don’t miss Highway 250 over the Kohala Mountains and the special hikes it leads to. The Chain of Craters Road arcs through the Kilauea area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, sometimes allowing drivers to bypass a section of the Hawaii Belt Road in favor of a scenic drive through the park. At other times—and 1992 is one of them—lava from Kilauea has overrun the Chain of Craters Road. You can’t shovel lava off the road like snow, as a volunteer ranger explained to us. When lava has blocked the Chain of Craters Road, drivers must return to the Hawaii Belt Road where they left it. The Saddle Road links Hilo with the west side of the island by crossing the 7,000-foot saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It’s fully paved but narrow and, at times, potholed and winding. It’s not a shortcut! Many rental-car contracts explicitly forbid driving on the Saddle Road. The other often-forbidden road is the road to South Point, the southernmost point in the United States. It, too, is paved but it is a one-lane road with lines of sight that are sometimes very short.