The Kilauea crater is sacred to red headed Pele. This is why one is not supposed to take any rocks from the crater. The park headquarters is full of testaments to the baleful powers of these misplaced spirits, but our favorite story involves bringing something into the crater - cremated remains.
We, ourselves, have scattered friends ashes here, in this wild part of Hawaii, but this story involves a man who wished to dispose of the ashes of his wife here. He brought them from the mainland and with a group of friends, they descended into the crater to find a suitable place to scatter them.
They spent some time on this mission, exploring many possible sites, but then as the day turned to evening things began to get confused. The crater gets dark before the open land around it and the rock is all black, making it harder to see. In the confusion of their explorations, they lost the backpack full of ashes.
After spending some time looking for it and not being quite sure at which rest stop they had seen it last, they decided to leave the crater before dark. This is not a place to be wandering about sightless with its fissures and sharp stones.
The man returned to the mainland. Some time later, his pack was found. The park rangers found the man's address in his backpack and sent it and his wife's ashes back to him. The spirits of the volcano had spoken. His wife's ashes were meant to be kept or scattered elsewhere.