Kazumura Cave

Olaa - Sexton's Cave - Doc Bellou Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Puna District, Hawai'i, Big Island.
Open:	By appointment, most days of the year.
Fee:	Adults $10, Children (8) $10.
Classification:	lava tube
Light:	electric torches, cap lamps, provided by the guide
Dimension:	L=61,420 m, VR=1,101 m.
Guided tours:	L=1,000-3,000 m, VR=100 m D=1-5 h.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	IUS Com. on Volcanic Caves News #13 Brad Burnham (2003): Kazumura Cave : The World's Longest Lava Tube, ISBN: 082396261X, will be published in August 2003. amazon.com Kevin Allred, Carlene Allred (1997): Development and Morphology of Kazumura Cave, Hawaii, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, August 1997, 59(2): 67-80. pdf file Jeanne K Hanson (2007): Caves, 142 pp, 16 colour and 30 B&W photos. Chelsea House, New York. pp 55-68
Address:	Harry Shick, General Delivery, Keaau, Hawai'i 96749, Tel: +1-808-967-7208.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1300-1650	forming of the caves.
22-SEP-1995	Kazumura Cave and Olaa Cave connected by Kevin Allred and Mike Shambaugh.
1996	cave opened to the public on cave trekking tours.

Description

Kazumura Cave is a very recent discovery. In the mid 1990s several known lava tubes and some new discoveries were connected to one big cave. So today Kazumura Cave is the longest lava tube of the world, more than 60 km long.

It is the deepest cave of the USA and the eighth longest. The second deepest cave of the USA is still a lava tube of Hawai'i, Huehue Cave. This statistic is rather impressive, although a comparison with karst caves is not very useful.

A through trip from the Progress of Man entrance near Volcano National Park to the lowest entrance in Paradise Park near Hilo takes two days. Such a trip includes 17 rope drops and 50 km of traverse. On the tours provided by Harry Shick, the visitors see three kilometers of the cave without any drops. Still such an adventure takes five hours.

This cave is rather young, the lawa flow and the forming of the caves happened only about 350 to 700 years ago. The tube contains all kinds of lava formations, like lava Falls, lava blades, tubular lava stalactites, stretched lava, and lava plunge pools.

We first added Kazumura Cave to showcaves.com, because of the enormous size of this cave. At this time no part of it was open to the public. In between Harry Shick started tours to one of the prime areas of the Kazumura system. He offers any kind of tours, from an 1 hour walking trip to an 8 hour technical trip.

Kazumura Cave Gallery