Up, Up and Away in Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii
Written: Sep 14 '02 (Updated Apr 01 '03)
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Pros: You are on top of the world, in the clouds, almost indescribable.
Cons: None - wheelchair accessible and wilderness just can't happen.
The Bottom Line: This is a must do in Maui. It should be one of the reasons you are visiting this island. Don't miss it.
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| jo.com's Full Review: Haleakala National Park |
One of our trips on Maui during our 3-week vacation to Hawai'i was to Haleakala National Park. This is a must do, in my opinion, and I believe if you don’t go you will be missing an awe-inspiring trip.
What is Haleakala National Park and where is it: Some background information
Haleakala is not a crater as much as it looks like one from various positions. It is actually a valley, which was carved into a volcano by thousands of years of erosion. It is technically called a shield volcano because its sides slope gradually. Haleaka’s name means House of the Sun with a summit of 10,023 feet. At the top you will look down into the “crater” or valley of the world’s largest dormant volcano. It is considered active but hasn’t done anything since the late 18th century. The valley is so big it would hold Manhattan.
To get here you will take Highway 37, assuming you stayed on the west coast, the most popular resort area, to Highway 337, which is Kaleakala Highway onto Highway 378, Haleaka Crater Road. The Park is on the east coast of Maui.
Since we were staying in Lahaina we stopped at Mr. Sub, 129 Lahainaluna Road (closed Sundays), and picked up lunch. The sandwiches were excellent and with a deposit you can get a cooler for the day. There is no food or water in this National Park and you have to have water with you. If you are just doing a day trip, bring a gallon and you can fill up small bottles.
It took us about 1-1/2 hours to get to the Kahului section of the park from our Bed and Breakfast. That is where most people enter it but you can also enter at the Kipahulu section, which is near Hana. No matter where you start you’ll go through Pukalani, 27 miles below the summit, which is the last place to get gas and food.
Leave early in the morning. You will have better views because later in the day the clouds and fog may be so thick that it is hard to see anything. But as you will hear, this is not Disneyland and you could have a foggy, rainy morning and a sunny clear afternoon. We had a great day in terms of weather.
A very popular activity is to bicycle down from the summit on the road. If that is of interest to you there are tours that will provide bikes and transportation to the top. I will talk about hiking in a moment but some choose to take horses into the valley. Call Pony Express Tours at 808-667-2200. This has a website: www.ponyexpress.com. Go to it just to see some pictures of the valley. You can also see pictures of the silversword, which I will talk about later.
The fee is $10.00 per car, which is good for one week. As amazing as this was (My notes say, “In this case my pictures won’t tell the story.”) one day was enough for us unless you are camping and camping is available. You can call the park at 808/572-4400 or talk to the Rangers at the Visitor Centers. At this point a website for this Park is being worked on so the urls that are found in Frommer's, for example, do not work.
What you will find at Haleakala National Park
You want to drive to the summit, if you can. I say, if you can, because it is 37 miles from Kahuli which takes about 2 hours each way with no stops. I also say that because there are intimidating signs everywhere about the altitude. People who smoke, are pregnant, have asthma or a heart condition are especially warned. You will be warned that the lack of oxygen may cause nausea, headaches, shortness of breath, dizziness and/or dehydration.
The first park entrance which is actually about 1 mile in as you enter the Park is the Park Headquarters Visitor Center where you will pay your money and you can get a drink of water and use the restroom. You can also get camping permits here, make a phone call and pick up programs of activities and information. This is open 7:30am – 4:00pm every day. The park is always open but remember to stay overnight you need a permit.
There are around 30 miles of trails in Haleakala, none of which are wheelchair accessible. One of the overlooks is, though and the summit has a huge parking lot, which is paved. There are two scenic overlooks on the way up to the next Visitor Center. One you stop at on the way up and the other on the way down. The first overlook, Leleiwi is at 8, 840 feet. You have already been driving through clouds but getting out and feeling them is really an experience.
The other Visitor Center is 11 miles past the park entrance and is open daily from sunrise to 3:00pm. Restrooms and water are available here and this is where we picked up our hiking guide. This may be your first trail experience. It is called White Hill. It is a short one but it won’t feel short. It is 4/10 of a mile round trip over rocks but if you can get there you will be treated to views of cinder cones and the valley. It is a 140-foot elevation change each way. We did not walk on the Hosmer Grove Nature Trail, which is a 1/2 mile loop but my guide says this is a good walk for families with small children because none of the others will be.
Keep going and you will come to the summit called Puu Ulaula Overlook. This is the volcano’s highest point, 10,023 feet and although there is large parking lot when we were there the crowd was sparse. There is a little building here with information on the walls and glass windows. If it is really windy you can look at the valley from here but wear a windbreaker so you don’t have to stay inside. It was cool and I needed a sweater and jacket at this point. I would also suggest wearing pants. If you are going to hike, even the short one we did, make sure they are pants that you don’t care about. We were very dirty from the sand and dirt on the trail and everything seems to stick!
You will also see the Haleakala Observatories, which you cannot go into and are technically outside the Park's boundaries. They are operated by privately owned institutions (such as a University) and for example, from one called the Lunar Ranging Station, "a beam of light is bounced off the prisms that were left on the moon by Apollo astronauts. The light makes the earth-moon round trip in 2 seconds. One of the things it does is records the northwest movement of the Pacific plate." (From Haleakala, The Story Behind the Scenery by Jim Mack and is one of the many National Park series books.)
It is here also that you should make sure you get in a Ranger’s talk. They only speak at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 so plan accordingly. The Ranger was very informative and you’ll get some great information from him on what you are looking at other than some of the most spectacular scenery you’ve ever seen. On top of the view itself, you will truly feel as if you are on the edge of the earth. Clouds will surround you and every angle is slightly different. There is an easy walk on the outside of the parking lot (be careful!) where everywhere you turn you see something different.
A plant called the silversword, which is rare, is being cultivated in this area also. You can get up very close to one. They only grow in Hawai'i and take from 4-50 years to bloom and then they only bloom from May – October. The bloom is a 1-6-foot stalk with a purple bouquet that looks like sunflowers. We were there in early June but there were no blooms. All we saw were pictures and a few blooms that had died from the previous year.
Both Visitor Centers have music and books for sale. I bought a beautiful CD called Hawai'i and the profits go to the National Park.
Going back down we stopped again at the Haleakala Visitor Center for the Sliding Sands hike. This trail starts at 9,740 feet and descends 4 miles to the valley floor. Going back is very difficult because of the grade, elevation and lack of oxygen so it expect to spend twice as long hiking back up as you did hiking back down. For an “easier” hike the guide suggests the trail to what is called the first switchback (That is a short trail leading off of the main one.) That will only be a 2/3-mile hike round trip with an elevation change of 30 feet. The views of cinder cones and old lava flows are amazing. We may have seen 6 people in total on this hike so the solitude is amazing. This is considered wilderness defined by the Hiking Guide as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by humans, where humans are visitors who do not remain. Nowhere on earth can you enter a wilderness with the combination of rare plants and animals (especially the nene- a bird, which I never saw in our 3 weeks in Hawaii.) found at Haleakala.”
Do not go off the trail. Even the Hawaiian wolf spider, which is rare, lives among the rocks and walking on the rocks that aren’t on the trail may kill them.
Obviously nothing can be picked up as a souvenir.
Pets are not allowed in the wilderness area or trails. Make sure you have a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, hiking boots (Here again, they would have been great, but I had sneakers and somehow my husband managed to get them clean!) water and dress in layers.
You will get tired even on this short hike but along the path and at that first switchback are rocks on which you can sit. They aren’t benches and aren’t the most comfortable seat, but you can catch your breath, look at the array of colors on the sides of the valley and smell the air.
We ended up eating our lunch at about 3:00 at the first Visitor Center which had a couple of picnic tables.
My final thoughts:
Many years ago we did the “Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, etc. tour” and one was more spectacular than the other. I couldn’t pick my favorite then. Hawai'i is the same way. The lava flow on The Big Island was amazing as was Diamond Head as was Haleakala National Park. This is one place I will say that even if you are not mobile drive up to the summit. If you can hike into the valley, all the better, but experiencing this National Park is a must do.
I don't know what that is a picture of on the profile page so I do hope you go to ponyexpress to see some of the sights.
Some of this information has been taken from my hiking guide and the National Park brochure.
Feel free to leave me a comment or ask any questions. Other Hawaii reviews you may be interested in:
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Haleakala National Park in Maui
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Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: Anytime
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
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