One other thing to emphasize: You're never guaranteed to see active lava flow. Right now, you can see it at the Jagger Museum overlook and by doing a 10-mile roundtrip hike from The End of Craters Road in the park. Outside the park, you can sometimes see active flow at the Kalapana Viewing Area in Puna, but you have no guarantee that Civil Defense will let you get close enough to actually see it. They have a hotline you can call for current reports/statuts. It's 808.961.8093. Of course, all this could change in an instant; you just never know.

Alas, we did not see active flow. We had plans to hike in the park one afternoon and then stay long enough to see the flow from the museum, but it was raining so hard as we passed by the park (after hiking to/from the Green Sand Beach at the southern tip of the island) that we just kept driving. We were spent as it was. Another reason to go back.....