Haleakala National Park

Trip Assistant

How Much Time?

If you’re headed up the volcano for sunrise, know that it will be cold. Be prepared for it, so you want to stick around for the afternoon (hiking Sliding Sands Trail). If you need some beach time after that, I get it, go for it. The next stop is Kipahulu. It doesn’t take long to get there on the unpaved-car-rental-agreement-breaking stretch of road going counterclockwise around Haleakala. Take Hana Highway, and it’ll take a while, likely a full day, and you’re way better off spending a night at Hana to break up that very stressful drive. Kipahulu doesn’t take much time either. It’s one hike: Pipiwai to Waimoky Falls.

Need to Know

A permit is required for several 4x4 roads, including the popular White Rim Road. Fill up with gas before heading out on the dirt roads and be prepared for self rescue.
Haleakala reaches 10,023 feet. Kipahulu is basically at sea level. Temperature decreases 3-5°F with every 1,000 feet of elevation gain.
Piilani Highway (Hwy 31) is quite nice, but I don’t make the rental car company agreements.

Highlights

Haleakala Summit
Kalahaku Overlook
Pa Kaoao Overlook
Haleakala Summit Viewpoint
Hosmer Grove
Waimoku Falls
‘Ohe’o Gulch

Attractions and outfitters are pinned on the Google Map below. Expand the sidebar (top left corner) to see the data and select/deselect layers.

Activities

Hiking
Backpacking
Biking
Stargazing
Swimming
Birdwatching

Favorite Trails

Easy

Leleiwi Overlook

Moderate

Pipiwai

Strenuous

Sliding Sands

*Links to AllTrails

When To Go?

Weather

Visitation

Visitation is pretty steady year-round and weather is similarly stable. I’d try to travel with the whales, which are abundant from winter into spring. Another thing to think about here is how Maui receives about 2.5 million annual visitors. The island is about 465,000 acres. The Big Island is 2,573,000 acres and receives about 2 million annual visitors. Cram a whole lot of those visitors on the narrow winding roads of Hana Highway or Kahekili Highway and it’s not exactly the vacation paradise you’ve been dreaming about. There are two ways to solve this: money or knowledge. I’d put a fair amount of time into figuring out what to do on your Hawaiian vacation. I’m happy to help as much as I can.

Park Map Downloads

Haleakala National Park Map: PDF | JPG

Maui: PDF | JPG

All 63 Parks Map: PDF | JPG

Remote Islands Region w/ All NPS Units: PDF | JPG

Road Trips

Helpful Tools

Below you'll see a Google Map to help plan a Maui trip. Much is made about the road around Haleakala and how driving it will void your rental car agreement. That's likely true, but the road is usually quite nice and it saves you all kinds of headaches getting through Hana Highway, which has extremely limited parking at the most desirable destinations. It’s a good start, but I’d highly recommend making your own.

Google My Maps, Wanderlog, and TripIt are incredibly useful trip planning tools. Find what works best for you!

There’s much more to our country. Here’s another Google Map with points of interest across all types of public land.

For campers, here’s a Google Map with National Forest campgrounds. National Park campgrounds are difficult to reserve (there are about 200!). With nearly 5,000 national forest campgrounds, you can usually pull in and find a spot.

Highlights

Look at the huge gash running north from the West Maui mountains, that’s Honokohau Valley, which leads to Honokohau Falls, there’s a private boardwalk to a viewpoint of the falls and helicopters might take you there. Speaking of, helicopter tour of Molokai is excellent. As is the boat tour around Lanai.

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