Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park reopened over the weekend on Saturday, Sept. 22 after closing May 11 from unprecedented volcanic activity that damaged park infrastructure.

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After a 134 day closure, park rangers turned off the Park Closed sign on Highway 11 and replaced it with a new message: “Welcome Back/Park Open”.

The opening day was National Public Lands Day, a fee-free day, and entrance fees went into effect the next day Sunday, Sept. 23.

Rangers were able to open the park several hours ahead of schedule and the first vehicle – local Hilo residents – came in at 7 a.m. Park rangers say an estimated several thousand people enjoyed the park under great weather.

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Drinking water had also been restored in time for the reopening, thanks to members of the park’s Facilities Maintenance team who have worked to repair pipes and the water system damaged by volcanic activity.

“It was a picture-perfect day and our hearts are filled with joy to see our visitors and community return to their park,” said Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando. “We thank everyone for their patience, support and understanding during the last 134 days,” she said.

The extended closure was due to unprecedented volcanic activity which threatened public safety, damaged park roads, waterlines, buildings and trails.

Parts of the park remain closed until further damage assessments and repairs can be made.

For more information and a map of what is open in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and to learn about the new hazards including sink holes and earth cracks created by tens of thousands of earthquakes that preceded the opening, visit the park website.</s>Hawaii Volcanoes National Park reopens after Kilauea eruption

The eruption destroyed hundreds of homes and reshaped the popular summit crater inside the park.</s>HAWAII NATIONAL PARK (KHON2) - It's been a little over four months, but Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen Saturday.

Portions of the park closed in May due to Kilauea's eruption activity, which has left some of the park's buildings, roads, and trails damaged and others destroyed.

So what can visitors expect when the park reopens?

"For anybody that's familiar with Halemaumau or Kilauea caldera, I think they're going to be really blown away by the extraordinary changes that have taken place. The size and shape of the crater has quadrupled, at least at Halemaumau, and there's been significant cracking and changes to Kilauea caldera itself," said Jessica Ferracane, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park public affairs specialist.

According to the park website, Thurston Lava Tube, Kilauea Iki Trail, Jaggar Museum, and portions of Volcano House will remain closed. Kilauea Visitor Center and Military Camp will open, including the Kilauea Iki Overlook, Devastation Trail, and Chain of Craters Road to Holei Sea Arch.

The website also says trails in and around the Kilauea summit crater could stay closed for years, or never open again.

Nearby businesses, like Kilauea Lodge, have been suffering during the closure.

General manager Janet Coney has worked there for 28 years

"Of all the years I've been here, I've never seen business take a downturn as bad as we did this summer," she said.

She says business was down 50 percent, forcing her to cut employee hours.

"Our rooms have been pretty empty this summer, but this weekend, we're starting to fill up again, so again, we're very hopeful that business will start coming back," she said.

The park gearing up for a busy day Saturday. Admission will be free, but expect long lines and limited parking.

Park officials say there is no drinking water at the park, so bring your own water.</s>HONOLULU – A national park in Hawaii has reopened after being closed for more than four months because of Kilauea volcano’s latest eruption, which caused widespread damage to park infrastructure and dramatically changed its landscape.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials said there were no lines or waiting for visitors to catch a glimpse of the volcano that made headlines across the world when it began erupting in May. Admission is free Saturday.

The eruption destroyed hundreds of homes outside the park while changing the popular summit crater inside the park.

READ MORE: Hawaii volcanic eruption that created a new peninsula could last as long as 2 years

The national park – normally the state’s most-visited tourist attraction – had been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. Ash clouds shot skyward from the summit crater and blanketed the region in volcanic debris.

Kilauea has been active for decades. But the eruption that began in May has transformed both the park and the rural Big Island coastline that surrounds it.

Outside the park, lava flows consumed entire neighbourhoods, filled an ocean bay and created miles of new shoreline with fresh black sand beaches and jagged rocky outcrops. Inside the park, molten rock drained from the summit lava lake and vanished from view as the landscape underwent a monumental change.

WATCH: Time-lapse shows changes to Kilauea volcano over five months

The summit crater floor sunk 1,500 feet (460 metres), and the overall Kilauea caldera widened – expanding more than 1 square mile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It quadrupled in size as lava drained out of the active vent.

“This eruption was really unprecedented in the historic record,” Ingrid Johanson, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “The changes we’ve seen at the summit are much more dramatic than anything that’s happened in the last 200 years.”

The crater looks “completely different,” Johanson said. “I think people are going to be really awestruck when they see it.”

READ MORE: People being arrested in Hawaii for taking ‘lava selfies’ near Kilauea volcano

However, one of the park’s biggest draws – the radiant red light from the lava lake that has been a Kilauea hallmark for over a decade – is completely gone.

“There is no glow at all,” said Shanelle Saunders, the park’s acting spokeswoman. “You can’t even see your hand in front your face it’s so dark in a lot of these areas. I mean, the stars right now are incredible, but there’s actually no flowing lava.”

The park will be open 24 hours a day, but visitors should be careful at night because of new cracks in trails and walkways. “Even if people are really familiar with those trails, they may have changed since they’ve been here,” Saunders said.

WATCH: Hawaii volcano eruption slows to virtual halt after more than three months

Public access to the volcano remains limited because of damage to its infrastructure. But visitors can once again hike around some parts of the summit area and see the aftermath of the historic eruption.

“The crater rim trail is open to a certain point,” Saunders said. “And from there, they can see down into the crater itself.”

The theme of this year’s National Public Lands Day is “resilience and restoration,” said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane, who noted that park repair work had been pointing toward a late-September reopening.

“We really wanted to invite visitors back without them having to pay on that first day,” Ferracane said. “The theme was so uncanny that we thought it would be a real good fit.”

While volcanic activity has slowed significantly in the past month and no lava is reaching the surface at Kilauea, scientists aren’t ready to declare the latest eruption over.

“There is still material that could feed into an eruption,” Johanson said. “I definitely expect that lava will return one day.”</s>Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials said there were no lines or waiting for visitors to catch a glimpse of the volcano that made headlines across the world when it began erupting in May. Admission is free Saturday.

The eruption destroyed hundreds of homes outside the park while changing the popular summit crater inside the park.

The national park—normally the state's most-visited tourist attraction—had been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. Ash clouds shot skyward from the summit crater and blanketed the region in volcanic debris.

Kilauea has been active for decades. But the eruption that began in May has transformed both the park and the rural Big Island coastline that surrounds it.

Outside the park, lava flows consumed entire neighborhoods, filled an ocean bay and created miles of new shoreline with fresh black sand beaches and jagged rocky outcrops. Inside the park, molten rock drained from the summit lava lake and vanished from view as the landscape underwent a monumental change.

The summit crater floor sunk 1,500 feet (460 meters), and the overall Kilauea caldera widened—expanding more than 1 square mile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It quadrupled in size as lava drained out of the active vent.

"This eruption was really unprecedented in the historic record," Ingrid Johanson, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The changes we've seen at the summit are much more dramatic than anything that's happened in the last 200 years."

The crater looks "completely different," Johanson said. "I think people are going to be really awestruck when they see it."

However, one of the park's biggest draws—the radiant red light from the lava lake that has been a Kilauea hallmark for over a decade—is completely gone.

"There is no glow at all," said Shanelle Saunders, the park's acting spokeswoman. "You can't even see your hand in front your face it's so dark in a lot of these areas. I mean, the stars right now are incredible, but there's actually no flowing lava."

The park will be open 24 hours a day, but visitors should be careful at night because of new cracks in trails and walkways. "Even if people are really familiar with those trails, they may have changed since they've been here," Saunders said.

Public access to the volcano remains limited because of damage to its infrastructure. But visitors can once again hike around some parts of the summit area and see the aftermath of the historic eruption.

"The crater rim trail is open to a certain point," Saunders said. "And from there, they can see down into the crater itself."

The theme of this year's National Public Lands Day is "resilience and restoration," said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane, who noted that park repair work had been pointing toward a late-September reopening.

"We really wanted to invite visitors back without them having to pay on that first day," Ferracane said. "The theme was so uncanny that we thought it would be a real good fit."

While volcanic activity has slowed significantly in the past month and no lava is reaching the surface at Kilauea, scientists aren't ready to declare the latest eruption over.

"There is still material that could feed into an eruption," Johanson said. "I definitely expect that lava will return one day."

These 2018 images released by the United States Geological Survey, USGS, shows past, left, and present views of Kilauea's summit in Hawaii. At left is a photo taken on Nov. 28, 2008, with a distinct gas plume rising from the vent that had opened within Halemaumau about eight months earlier. At right is a photo taken on August 1, 2018, to approximate the 2008 view for comparison. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen its main gates Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, welcoming carloads of visitors eager to see Kilauea's new summit crater and the area where a longstanding lava lake once bubbled near the surface. The park has been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. (USGS via AP) In this May 10, 2018, file photo, visitors view Kilauea's summit crater outside the Jaggar Museum in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen its main gates Saturday, Sept. 22. The park has been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) This Sept. 1, 2015, file photo shows volcanic gas rising from the lava lake in Kilauea's Halemaumau Crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii's Big Island. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen its main gates Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, welcoming carloads of visitors eager to see Kilauea's new summit crater and the area where a longstanding lava lake once bubbled near the surface. The park has been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)</s>Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been erupting nonstop for months, but according to a new announcement by the National Park Service, the volcano has finally gone on pause long enough for previously closed sections of the park to re-open. The Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is set to reopen on Saturday, September 22.

The park closed on May 11 following the initial eruptions from the Kilauea volcano. Over the next few months, the park took severe damage from dozens of earthquakes and eruptions. After Kilauea finally stopped erupting in early August, the park started determining what infrastructure had been damaged.

It’s been a little over a month since those initial assessments, and the park has concluded that certain areas are safe enough to reopen. Currently four buildings and seven trails are at least partially open, but full recovery will take years. In particular, certain roads and trails around the summit of Kilauea may never be rebuilt.

Park officials are also worried that Kilauea could begin erupting again, ruining more than a month of work and putting the park permanently out of operation. There’s no way to know if the lull in eruptions since August is a temporary pause or a more permanent shutdown of the volcano, so park workers are faced with the possibility that a new earthquake or explosion could undo all their work.

Still, for the time being the park will be partially open to the public. September 22 is also National Public Lands Day, where admission to national parks is free. If you’re in the area, it’s almost certainly worth the trip to see just how much a volcano can change the landscape.</s>Hawaii National Park, HI – Smiling rangers, beautiful weather, and drinking water welcomed visitors back into Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park today, which closed May 11 after unprecedented volcanic activity threatened public safety and damaged park roads, waterlines, buildings and trails.

Park rangers turned off the Park Closed sign on Highway 11 and replaced it with a new message: Welcome Back/Park Open. Rangers were able to open the park several hours ahead of schedule and the first vehicle – local Hilo residents – came in at 7 a.m. Although an official count wasn’t immediately available, an estimated several thousand people enjoyed the park under blue skies and cool tradewinds today.

Visitors were pleasantly surprised that drinking water had been restored in time for the reopening, thanks to members of the park’s Facilities Maintenance team who have worked diligently to repair pipes and the water system. In addition, Clyde the mule and ‘Ōhi‘a, a part quarter horse, greeted visitors.

“It was a picture-perfect day and our hearts are filled with joy to see our visitors and community return to their park,” said Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando. “We thank everyone for their patience, support and understanding during the last 134 days,” she said. Orlando assisted visitors near the Hōlei Sea Arch while other staff roved the park and interacted with visitors who were ecstatic the park is open.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park now resumes its normal 24-hour a day operation. Saturday was National Public Lands Day, a fee-free day, and entrance fees will go into effect Sunday. Parts of the park remain closed until further damage assessments and repairs can be made.

For more information and a map of what is open in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and to learn about the new hazards including sink holes and earth cracks created by tens of thousands of earthquakes that preceded the opening, visit the park website: www.nps.gov/havo/closed_areas…..</s>HONOLULU — A national park in Hawaii is reopening after being closed for more than four months because of Kilauea volcano’s latest eruption.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials are bracing for long lines and crammed roads as visitors flock to the park Saturday. The reopening coincides with National Public Lands Day, so admission will be free.

The park’s acting spokeswoman Shanelle Saunders says well over 5,000 people are expected to visit the volcano on Saturday.

While interest is high, accommodations will be somewhat limited. Damage to the park closed about 30 per cent of its former parking capacity.

Kilauea has been active for decades. But the eruption that began in May has transformed both the park and the rural Big Island coastline that surrounds it.</s>CHICO — The skateboard park inside Humboldt Neighborhood Park has been reopened.

The course was closed by the Chico Area Recreation and Park District last week after users continued to violate the rules.

CARD Facilities Manager Jake Preston said CARD reopened the park Tuesday, but will continue to monitor it closely. Leading to the closure were the violations of rules about alcohol and drug use at the park, as well as bikes. Only skateboards are allowed to be used on the course.

The course is on Humboldt Avenue, near Wall Street.</s>The recent eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has quieted to the point that federal officials are ready to allow people back to the dramatically changed summit crater, which has quadrupled in size, lost all of its lava and collapsed downward so far that the Empire State Building could now fit inside.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen its main gates Saturday. Officials are bracing for long lines and crammed roads as visitors flock to see Kilauea's new landscape and the area where a well-known lava lake once bubbled. The reopening also coincides with National Public Lands Day, so admission is free.

"We are projecting well over 5,000 people just in one day," Hawaii Volcanoes National Park acting spokeswoman Shanelle Saunders said.

While interest is high, accommodations will be somewhat limited. Damage to the park closed about 30 percent of its former parking capacity.

"We're really expecting long lines, and we hope people have plenty of patience when they're trying to get parking spaces," Saunders said. There's still no access to clean drinking water in the park, and the summit's Jaggar Museum remains closed, she added.

The national park — normally the state's most-visited tourist attraction — has been closed for 135 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. Ash clouds shot skyward from the summit crater and blanketed the region in volcanic debris.

Kilauea has been active for decades. But the eruption that began in May has transformed both the park and the rural Big Island coastline that surrounds it.

Outside the park, lava flows consumed entire neighborhoods, filled an ocean bay and created miles of new shoreline with fresh black sand beaches and jagged rocky outcrops. Inside the park, molten rock drained from the summit lava lake and vanished from view as the landscape underwent a monumental change.

The summit crater floor sunk 1,500 feet (460 meters), and the overall Kilauea caldera widened — expanding from about 200 acres to over 1,000 acres, or more than 1 square mile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"This eruption was really unprecedented in the historic record," Ingrid Johanson, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The changes we've seen at the summit are much more dramatic than anything that's happened in the last 200 years."

The crater looks "completely different," Johanson said. "I think people are going to be really awestruck when they see it."

However, one of the park's biggest draws — the radiant red light from the 2,000-degree lava lake that has been a Kilauea hallmark for over a decade — is completely gone.

"There is no glow at all," Saunders said. "You can't even see your hand in front your face it's so dark in a lot of these areas. I mean, the stars right now are incredible, but there's actually no flowing lava."

The park will be open 24 hours a day, but visitors should be careful at night because of new cracks in trails and walkways. "Even if people are really familiar with those trails, they may have changed since they've been here," Saunders said.

Public access to the volcano remains limited because of damage to its infrastructure. But visitors can once again hike around some parts of the summit area and see the aftermath of the historic eruption.

"The crater rim trail is open to a certain point," Saunders said. "And from there, they can see down into the crater itself."

The theme of this year's National Public Lands Day is "resilience and restoration," said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane, who noted that park repair work had been pointing toward a late-September reopening.

"We really wanted to invite visitors back without them having to pay on that first day," Ferracane said. "The theme was so uncanny that we thought it would be a real good fit."

Regardless of when the park reopened, officials expected big crowds.

"If we reopened on a Monday in the middle of the school year, it would still be busy because people really want to come in and come back to the park," she said.

While volcanic activity has slowed significantly in the past month and no lava is reaching the surface at Kilauea, scientists aren't ready to declare the latest eruption over.

"There is still material that could feed into an eruption," Johanson said. "I definitely expect that lava will return one day."
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park reopens after 134 days of closure due to volcanic activity at Kilauea that damaged park infrastructure.