[5] In 1986, the Bureau of Land Management recommended that 68,760 acres (27,830 ha) of the site, located just southeast of the National Natural Landmark, to be a wilderness study area.

[9] A short trail (about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) in length) with educational signage along the way may be accessed from the north parking lot near the Hell's Half Acre rest area on I-15.

Among them are bitterbrush, bluebunch wheatgrass, foothills death camas, evening primrose, ferns, geraniums, gray rabbitbrush, Indian paintbrush, needle-and-thread grass, penstemon, prickly pear cactus, sagebrush, Utah juniper, and wild onion.

Species commonly found here include bobcats, coyotes, golden eagles, mule deer, elk, prairie falcons, pronghorn, red foxes, red-tailed hawks, and sage grouse.

[2] This fissure vent was created when one or more magmatic dikes (sheets or tubes of magma cutting across the existing geologic features) found their way to the surface.

[2][14] At the northwestern edge of the lava field is a basaltic volcano, with the fissure vent extending toward the southeast and the Hell's Half Acre site.

[16] The current name of the lava field was given to it by fur traders in the early 19th century seeking passage through the rough terrain of the Rocky Mountains.

[19] One of the first white people to record their visit to Hell's Half Acre was Benjamin Bonneville, a French-born United States Army officer.

[18] These practices were significantly cut back in the 1910s and 1920s as coal became more widely available as a fuel, but the harvesting of red cedar from Hell's Half Acre continued until 1942.

[21] In the fall of 2005, Michael Curtis Reynolds was arrested at the Hell's Half Acre rest area after the Federal Bureau of Investigation lured him there with the promise of money and arms from a supporter.

[22] More recently, in 2006 the utility Utah Power tried to build an electrical substation near the easternmost part of Hell's Half Acre lava field.