Kipuka Puaula (Bird Park) Trail in Volcanoes National Park

This easy 1 1/2-mile, hour-long hike lets you see native Hawaiian flora and fauna in a little oasis of living nature in a field of lava. For some reason (gravity or rate of flow, perhaps), the once red-hot lava skirted--perhaps even surrounded--this miniforest and let it survive. At the trailhead on Mauna Loa Road is a display of plants and birds you'll see on the walk. Go early in the morning or in the evening (or even better, just after a rain) to see native birds like the apapane (a small, bright-red bird with black wings and tail that sips the nectar of the red-blossom ohia lehua trees) and the iiwi (larger and orange-vermilion colored, with a curved orange bill). Native trees along the trail include giant ohia, koa, soapberry, kolea, and mamani.