Best Petroglyphs on the Big Island to Visit
Curious about where to find the best petroglyphs on the Big Island to visit?
I love finding these ancient rock carvings found all over the island from north of Kona then down in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and I’m going to show you the best ones that are easy to get to.
Best Big Island Petroglyph Map & Locations
The Big Island is covered in petroglyphs. There are large fields full of them that are easy to access for visitors and then there are elusive individual ones that only locals know the complicated location of (I haven’t even been able to find them yet).
The best petroglyphs to visit on the Big Island are:
Waikoloa Petroglyph Reserve – the easiest and most convenient petroglyph field to access as it’s right next to Kings Shops in Waikoloa
Puako Petroglyph Park – a sweet hike through kiawe trees brings you to a petroglyph field oasis.
Pu’uloa Petroglyphs – a 1-mile hike in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park that takes you to a boardwalk overlooking a petroglyph field. The only reason to take Chain of Craters Road to the end, imo.
Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park – a lesser-known petroglyph field right in Kona
Kohanaiki Beach Park – one singular petroglyph displayed at a cute beach garden
Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary – faint petroglyphs are carved on the walls of a private lava tube.
Kalahuipua’a Historic Park – a few petroglyphs off the main trail, but lava tube is the real celebrity.
💁♀️ Tab’s Trip Tip: Petroglyphs are best seen in the early morning or late afternoon as the long shadows from low light help define the outlines best. I discovered that it’s near impossible to see them with a flashlight as it washes them out almost complete oblivion.
Kona Village Resort
- 5* Luxury
- 3 sands/1 beach
- Private petroglyph field
Waikoloa Petroglyph Reserve
📍 How to Get Here: Park in the King’s Marketplace parking lot in Waikoloa, the closer to the Shell gas station the better.
Walk along the paved sidewalk on Pohakulana Place until you reach the end of the road and the path veers towards the golf course.
Waikoloa Petroglyph Reserve is probably the most bang for your buck for petroglyph viewing. It’s easily accessible, more of a stroll rather than a hike, and there are lots of petroglyphs to be found.
There are two trailheads for the Waikoloa Petroglyph Reserve.
One is by the golf course bathrooms, which takes you across the lava field, over rocky terrain and the trail kinda disappears for a bit (I still haven’t found the correct trail that gets all the way across lol!).
The other, the one I prefer, is on the opposite side of the field which is accessible by following the golf cart paved path. Of course you’ll have to be extra careful during tee time hours for fly balls, but it’s easier on the feet and obviously more clearly marked.
From this entrance the trail becomes clearly defined and a little less rough than the entrance at the other end, although you still need to watch your steps.
The majority of the petroglyphs are on this far end of the lava field. Keep your eye out for all kinds of drawings.
Some carvings that make this location unique is the depiction of Western influence.
One in particular is of a person riding a horse. Others are English letters. So you might consider these carvings “modern art”.
Labeled on the path are also C-shaped stone windbreaks, something not found at other petroglyph sites.
💁♀️Tab’s Trip Tip: This field gets deceptively hot! Don’t be fooled by how close to the car this field is. I always get overheated walking these trails and always wish I remembered to bring my water bottle with me.
Puako Petroglyph Park
📍 How to Get Here: Park at Holoholokai Beach Park, next door to the Fairmont Orchid.
Take a peek at the shoreline, made up of starkly contrasting black lava rocks and white coral.
The Malama trail to Puako petroglyphs is a 1.5mile roundtrip hike.
From the parking lot follow the trail a couple of minutes until you reach a ring of petroglyph replicas.
💁♀️Tab’s Trip Tip: If you feel inclined to make a rubbing of a petroglyph you are allowed to use these replicas. Rubbing real petroglyphs is prohibited.
From here the trail heads into a bushy portal where you enter a mystical, tangled Kiawe forest grove.
While the shade of the tree cave is a welcome respite from the desert sun out here, watch your step and your head as roots and thorny branches try to take you out.
I’ve heard there are rogue petroglyphs along the way but I haven’t found them yet.
The forested trail eventually opens up to a more barren lava field with only a smattering of trees before ending at a rugged lookout over the Puako petroglyph field.
Some of these carvings date back to the 1200s.
Most of the carvings you’ll see are of humans. Some are singles standing on their own and some are in family-type groups.
It’s fun to ponder and wonder (Pwonder? Can that be a word?) who made these and why.
About 1,200 of the 3,000 petroglyphs are visible on this field. I didn’t count them but feel free to crunch those numbers.
Stroll the semi-shaded path around the field and find a rock or stump to sit on to take in the mysterious rocky canvas before you.
Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs
📍 How to Get Here: After entering Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, take Chain of Craters Road about 20 miles south, almost to the end.
It will be apparent when you see shoulder pullouts for parking along the road and a middle-of-nowhere call box and trailhead placard.
Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs is my favorite petroglyph location on the Big Island and a top location in the park.
This trail is a mostly flat, 1.5mile roundtrip trail over pahoehoe lava rocks and zero shade.
I would recommend hitting the trail early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the midday heat.
The rocky trail stays pretty clearly marked, although some ahu (cairns) help mark the way. It could get easy to get lost in this barren lava field if you weren’t paying attention.
Luckily it’s a straight shot to the viewing area.
You’ll arrive at an out-of-place boardwalk for easy and safe viewing of the petroglyphs.
The Pu’u Loa petroglyph has the largest collection on the island with 23,000 carvings and you will only view a fraction of them.
Instead of humans being the common theme, 85% are pukas, circles where a newborn’s umbilical cord was placed to ensure long life. (I guess that’s one thing they do understand about a petroglyph symbol.)
The boardwalk loop is a bit short for the effort it took to get here, so take in the gorgeous view of the valley and carvings for as long as you want.
On the way back I noticed a lot of stray “in the wild” petroglyphs off the side of the trail. I’m not sure if they are harder to see walking towards the boardwalk rather than away or if it had to do with the angle of the light.
Whichever, keep an eye out and try not to walk on top of them.
Join thousands of other visitors and locals to discover the best things to do on the Big Island!
🌺 New activities posted daily
🌺 Upcoming events not to miss
🌺 Ask questions about your trip
Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park
📍 How to Get Here: Park at the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park Visitor Center across Hwy 19 from Costco at the Kimo Rd intersection in Kona.
Take the trail from the parking lot over a half-paved path which eventually leads to the long white sand beach, past fishponds and heiau/hale ruins.
This area is considered an ahupua’a, a section of land that extends from the mountain to the sea providing all the necessary items for survival. Food could be harvested from the ocean, the nearby freshwater pond, and the fertile land (which isn’t so fertile anymore).
After about a 10minute walk you’ll come to a short petroglyph viewing boardwalk.
These petroglyphs are a bit faded and some can be hard to see, especially if the sun is higher up in the sky.
Thankfully, resting benches mark areas where petroglyphs can for sure be seen.
Human figures seem to be in clusters of ohana, or families. And a rifle icon sticks out like a sore thumb.
One thing that sets this petroglyph site apart from others is the amount of women represented here. Of all the petroglyphs in all of Hawaii only about 20% clearly define women. Here at Kaloko-Honokohau, 40% of its petroglyphs are women. What could be the meaning behind that?
Another distinctive image carved here is the papamu, a checkerboard of small holes.
Most explanations say it was a gameboard for konane (Hawaiian checkers game) or for divination. Others say it could have also been used as a calendar, abacus, and other ways of keeping track of various information.
Kalahuipua’a Historic Park
📍 How to Get Here: Adjacent to the Mauna Lani Resort is the Kalahuipua’a Historic Park trailhead with limited parking.
If it’s full, try the Mauna Lani Spa parking lot across the street.
Kalahuipua’a Historic Park includes ancient fishponds, a lava tube, and petroglyphs in this park, all accessible via a paved 1.7-mile “lollipop loop” walking path.
Before the trail hits the fishponds at around 0.35-miles, it meets up with the King’s Highway Foot Trail (which you can walk from the Waikoloa Petroglyph Reserve only 2 miles away).
Turn left onto this trail and see a few non-descript petroglyphs. Supposedly, there is a helmeted warrior and fisherman but I couldn’t find them.
If you wish to continue on the “lollipop” portion of the trail you can follow it around the Kalahuipua’a Fishponds.
The ponds cover about 4-acres and some reach depths of 20ft. Fish were trapped and plumped up before being fed to ali’i, or royalty.
Back at the first portion of the rolling trail, there’s a “skylight” lava tube partially hidden in the trees.
Hawaiians used this lava tube as a shelter from the 1500s-1700s.
Kohanaiki Beach Park
📍 How to Get Here: Take the one-laned Kohanaiki Rd through a golf course and rocky goat perches, past Pine Tree’s surfing beach, all the way to the end.
Within Kohanaiki Beach Park is a short historical path with a pond where endangered Hawaiian stilts like to hang, a hale with grass roof, a curated edible garden with a star compass, and…wait for it…a petroglyph.
A circular lava rock wall protects the singular petroglyph that resides in the middle.
A stone step up next to the rock wall lets you know where to stand in order to see it.
There are other petroglyphs scattered throughout the park (I’m not sure where), but this is one that’s marked for easy viewing.
Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary
📍 How to Get Here: It’s located halfway along Painted Church Rd in Captain Cook.
This petroglyph stop is hardly worth mentioning, especially since there’s a $10 ticket fee, but I will only because it’s easily accessible. Plus the gardens themselves are beautiful.
The Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary are a 7-acre botanical garden with manicured grounds to explore and “meditate” in. You’ll find religions from around the world represented here.
Once you pass all the initial buildings, as you have the gardens expanding before you, hang left to a grove of trees.
There you’ll find a fenced-off lava tube protected under the shade.
A placard helps you locate where you can (supposedly) see the petroglyphs near the back of the cave wall.
I had a hard time deciphering them.
Perhaps it was the shade, or I mistook them for cracks in the rocks, or the carvings are just too worn down after 800 years to see well.
Regardless, they’re there…somewhere.
Are Petroglyphs Worth Visiting on the Big Island?
Should you visit petroglyphs on your visit to the Big Island? I say YES!
Petroglyphs are such a unique, historical, and mysterious aspect to Hawaii. I believe visiting at least one is necessary.
As you can see, there are quite a few places to view petroglyphs here. The Waikoloa petroglyphs are super convenient, you don’t really have an excuse not to see them.
Happy petroglyph hunting!
FAQs
What are petroglyphs?
Petroglyphs are mysterious stone carvings etched into lava hundreds of years ago by native Hawaiians.
What do petroglyphs mean?
No one knows exactly what every symbol means. Some say they represent daily life, significant events, or spiritual rituals.
📍 Feeling overwhelmed planning your Big Island trip?
Let’s work on it together! ➡️
