On August 1, 1916, Haleakalā was set aside as part of Hawaiʻi National Park, and the modern era of the mountain began: Civilian Conservation Corps crews built the great crater trails in the 1930s — Keoneheʻeheʻe, the Sliding Sands, and Halemauʻu switchbacking down the wall — and on July 1, 1961, Haleakalā became a national park in its own right. The crater district joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the park was named an International Biosphere Reserve in 1980, and its summit sky remains one of the darkest and clearest anywhere — which is why the stargazing is famous and the sunrise is a pilgrimage.
So Haleakalā gathers the House of the Sun and the promise of longer days, a sacred summit and an honest “crater,” a silversword that blooms once, snow above a tropical sea, and a sunrise that earns its reservation — and our Haleakalā designs gather that into wearable form. Whether you rode down the mountain at dawn, hiked the Sliding Sands, stood above the clouds once and never forgot it, or keep the House of the Sun on your list — wear it. Above the clouds since 1916.
Why People Visit Haleakalā
Haleakalā offers a different Hawaiʻi — above the clouds, where the air is thin, the silence carries, and the sun rises over an ocean of mist at six in the morning. Travelers come for the sunrise at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula, the silversword on the upper slopes, the long hike down into the crater on Sliding Sands, the bamboo-forest walk to Waimoku Falls at Kīpahulu, the Pools of ʻOheʻo cascading down to the sea, and the dark-sky stargazing from the summit at night. It is contemplative, otherworldly, and unforgettable — a sacred mountain that has been holding sky over east Hawaiʻi for as long as anyone has counted.
