The measures of the place are hard to believe. The road climbs from sea level to the 10,023-foot summit at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula in just 38 miles — one of the steepest such ascents on Earth. At the top, the famous “crater” opens seven miles long, two miles wide, and some 2,600 feet deep — honestly speaking not a volcanic crater at all, but a vast erosional valley where two great watersheds wore through and met. It is cold up there; now and then, it even snows in Hawaiʻi. The first recorded non-Hawaiian ascent came in 1828, and travelers have been making the climb ever since.
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.
Why People Visit Haleakalā
- Watch sunrise at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula Overlook, the 10,023-foot summit of Haleakalā, with reservations made up to sixty days in advance through Recreation.gov — the iconic Haleakalā experience.
- Stop at the Haleakalā Visitor Center at 9,740 feet for crater overlooks, exhibits, ranger talks, and views of the cinder cone landscape from the rim.
- Hike the Sliding Sands Trail (Keoneheʻeheʻe) from the visitor center down onto the crater floor — descend through colored cinder fields and silversword stands, knowing the climb back out is steep and at altitude.
- Hike the Halemauʻu Trail along the crater rim and down to Hōlua, with sweeping views into Koʻolau Gap and the cloud forest below.
- See the ʻĀhinahina (Haleakalā silversword) at Kalahaku Overlook and along the upper trails — the endemic plant that grows only here, a silver rosette that lives for decades before its one extraordinary bloom.
- Look for nēnē, the Hawaiian goose and state bird, in the summit-area meadows — once nearly extinct, now slowly recovering on the upper mountain.
- Walk Hosmer Grove, the cool forest loop at 6,800 feet, with introduced and native trees and a chance to spot endemic Hawaiian forest birds like the ʻiʻiwi and ʻapapane.
- Pause at Leleiwi Overlook for views into the crater and, on a clear afternoon, the rare Brocken Spectre — a ringed shadow cast on the clouds below.
- Drive down to the Kīpahulu District at the coast and visit the Kīpahulu Visitor Center, the wet-side gateway to the lower park.
- Walk the short Kūloa Point Loop at Kīpahulu to the Pools of ʻOheʻo, the cascading freshwater pools where the ʻOheʻo Stream tumbles down to the Pacific.
- Hike the four-mile round-trip Pīpīwai Trail through the bamboo forest to Waimoku Falls, a four-hundred-foot ribbon of water in the back of the valley.
- Return to the summit after dark for stargazing — Haleakalā's summit sits under one of the darkest, clearest skies in the United States, and the constellations rise above the trade-wind clouds.
