Hawaii Volcanoes National Park — Halemaumau Crater

The summit caldera of Kilauea is the home of Pele — the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes — and is considered the most sacred site in Hawaii. Rangers and visitors document apparitions of a white-haired old woman who asks for rides or food along Crater Rim Drive and then vanishes. Native Hawaiians report this as Pele's manifestation. The tradition of taking lava rock from the park is associated with misfortune so severe that the Park Service receives hundreds of rocks mailed back each year.