Haleakala Wilderness Cabins (he said)
by Kent 1 Oct 2013Our recent trip to Maui included a most un-tropical component; we spent three days and two nights in Haleakala Crater, over a mile up from sea level. The National Park Service rents three wilderness cabins by the night, and by “wilderness”, they mean wilderness. The cabins have no electricity and are heated by a wood stove. There is running water in a kitchen sink, but it’s non-potable, and the only restroom facility is an outhouse about 50 feet away. It is as far as you can get, spiritually, from the $1000-per-night hotel rooms in Wailea or Kapalua, but we would not have traded those three days for a week at the fancy hotels.
The area around Paliku cabin
Haleakala tops out at 10,000 feet. The “crater” is technically not a crater, but the eroded and collapsed central part of a volcano. Over the years smaller eruptions have built some cinder cones and partially filled the basin with lava, so the floor is now between 6,500 and 7,000 feet above sea level. This means that, at best, the crater gets to about 60 degrees during the day, and drops close to freezing at night (hence the wood stove). Palm trees and turquoise water this is not.
The Air Force observatory at the summit
A moment of clear skies at the summit
The crater floor as seen from the top
Our hike started at the summit, in alternating clear skies and fog, and descended Sliding Sands trail to about 7,000 feet in about an hour and a half, where we emerged from below the clouds. Another hour and a half brought us to Kapalaoa cabin where we stopped for lunch. The thought of hoisting our 35 pound backpacks for another two hours made me wish I had reserved Kapalaoa for the first night, but our destination was Paliku, a full 10 miles from our starting point. By the time we reached our first overnight spot we were grateful to shed the packs and slip into our flipflops.
Paliku Cabin
I fired up the wood stove while Heather began preparations for dinner. Once things were settled we took a quick walk around the cabin to admire the location; steep cliffs just to the east, a forest to the north, grasslands to the south, and an incredible view of the setting sun to the west.
The late afternoon sun from Paliku cabin
And then, somehow, Heather crafted a “wilderness shepherd’s pie” out of powdered mashed potatoes, dried mushrooms, re-constituted beef jerky, and freeze-dried green beans. It was a fabulous dinner, with the added touch of some red wine I had snuck into a pint water bottle. Kind of put to shame most camp menus of freeze-dried beef stew and powdered juice.
Shepherds pie and red wine
And when the sun went down at 6:20pm, since we were miles from the nearest electric light, it got dark in a way that’s hard for city dwellers to appreciate. Some candles kept the night at bay, but there was really no need; by 7:30 we were struggling to stay awake – the 10 mile hike with 35 pounds on our backs had taken its toll.
The next morning we feasted on hot oatmeal, then cleaned up the cabin and set out on the 6.5 mile hike to Holua Cabin, our destination for the evening. The trail gradually left the vegetation behind until after about 1.5 hours we were walking on bare volcanic cinders. The different colors were surreal. The only signs of life were occasional Silversword plants, something unique to the high desert environments of Hawaii.
Trail through the cinder cones
At Holua, the mist was rising out of the Ko’olau Gap and washing over the cliffs behind the cabin, giving the landscape a surreal quality. Dinner on night two was tortellini with pesto sauce. I think we made it all the way to 8:30pm before falling asleep.
Day three dawned bright and clear, and our hike out the Switchbacks trail was gorgeous. We were met part way down by our friend Alexis, who had driven up the mountain to meet us for part of the hike. With our 2.5 hour hike back to 8,000 feet, our time in the crater was over. Below you can browse a slideshow of a couple dozen more photos.
To take your own trip to the Haleakala Wilderness Cabins you need to start planning well in advance. The Park Service starts taking reservations six months out, and the slots fill up quickly. You can request up to three nights in a row on one reservation. Your permit is available for pickup the day of your hike at the Visitors Center just after you enter the park. Getting your camping gear to Maui is a bit of a hassle; we were able to just barely fit two backpacks, two sleeping bags, and associated gear into a golf bag for transport on the airplane. But the hassle paled in comparison to three days of amazing scenery, solitude and tranquility in a part of Maui that almost no tourist ever sees.
Lordy! So, are you guys ever, like, NOT in someplace that’s fabulous?