One half mile from the Devastation Trail parking area is the turn off to the Pu'u Pua'i Overlook. On most days, the strong trade winds make it easy to see how the cone was built during the high lava fountaining in 1959. Notice parts of the old road are buried under Pu'u Pua'i. (Road rebuilding and rerouting is a fact of life here at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.)

Close to Kilauea Iki's fountaining, the lava pumice cinders were hot enough to weld themselves together into a spatter cone, Pu'u Pua'i.(Pu'u Pua'i means gushing hill.) Further downwind, the falling cinders had cooled sufficiently to form a blanket of cinders.