Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Emesine Cave

Location: Saddle Road near Hilo, Hawaii

Distance: 5.2 miles roundtrip to the cave, 2 miles roundtrip in the cave

Elevation: virtually none

Time Required: 4 hours

Red Tape/Notes: None.

What’s Nearby?: Rainbow Falls, Boiling Pots and Pe’epe’e Falls

Emesine Cave is actually a lava tube, formed during the 1881 lava flow. The cave isn’t well known, which means you’re likely to have the place to yourself, and it also means that it’s in good condition. No graffiti, no trash, cool formations inside – all the stuff you hope for. You have to hike over two and a half miles to get to the entrance, which is probably a pretty nice deterrent for many people. The hike itself is actually kind of interesting, going over old lava flow with occasional areas of greenery. Overall not a terrible approach by any standard, and the cave is really quite nice. Standard cave warnings apply – you’ll need a headlamp, wear a helmet or work hard not to bash your head, be wary of rockfall, etc. There’s a nice description of how to find the trailhead and how to find the cave in Hawaii the Big Island Revealed by Andrew Doughty. This guidebook is really good in general; we recommend buying it (or the app, which has the same information).

Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Emesine Cave