Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [343]
At 6940ft, Holua is one of the lowest areas along this trail, and you’ll see impressive views of the crater walls rising a few thousand feet to the west. Large lava tubes here are worth exploring: one’s up a short, steep cliff behind the Holua cabin, and another’s a 15-minute detour further along the trail. According to legend, the latter tube was a spiritual place where mothers brought the piko (umbilical cords) of their newborns to gather mana for the child.
* * *
SILVERSWORD COMEBACK
Goats ate them by the thousands. Collectors pulled them up by their roots. They were even used to decorate parade floats, for cryin’ out loud. It’s a miracle any of Haleakalā’s famed silverswords were left at all.
It took a concerted effort to bring them back from the brink of extinction, but Haleakalā visitors can once again see this luminous relative of the sunflower in numerous places around the park.
The silversword (′ahinahina) takes its name from its elegant silver spiked leaves, which glow with dew collected from the clouds. The plant lives up to 25 years before blooming for its first and last time. In its final year it shoots up a flowering stalk that can reach as high as 9ft. During summer the stalk flowers gloriously with hundreds of maroon and yellow blossoms. When the flowers go to seed in late fall, the plant makes its last gasp and dies.
Today the silversword survives solely because its fragile environment has been protected. After years of effort, the National Park Service has finished fencing the entire park with a 32-mile fence to keep out feral goats and pigs. You can do your part by not walking on cinders close to the plant, which damages the silversword’s shallow roots that radiate out several feet just inches below the surface.
* * *
If you have the energy, push on another mile to reach colorful cinder cones, being sure to make a short detour onto the Silversword Loop, where you’ll see these unique plants in various stages of growth. In summer, you might even see silverswords in flower, their tall stalks ablaze with hundreds of maroon and yellow blossoms. But be careful – half of all silverswords today are trampled to death as seedlings, mostly by hikers who wander off trails and unknowingly step on their shallow roots. The trail continues another 6.3 miles to the Paliku cabins.
The trailhead to Halemau′u is 3.5 miles above Park Headquarters Visitor Center and about 6 miles below the Haleakalā Visitor Center. There’s a fair chance you’ll see nene in the parking lot. If you’re camping at Hosmer Grove, you can take the little-known, unexciting Supply Trail instead, joining the Halemau′u Trail at the crater rim after 2.5 miles.
EXPLORING THE CINDER DESERT
A spur trail connects Sliding Sands Trail, just west of Kapalaoa cabin, with the Halemau′u Trail, about midway between the Paliku and Holua campgrounds. This spur trail takes in many of the crater’s most kaleidoscopic cinder cones, and the viewing angle changes with every step. The trail ends up on the north side of the cinder desert near Kawilinau, also known as the Bottomless Pit. Legends say the pit leads down to the sea, though the National Park Service says it’s just 65ft deep. Truth be told, there’s not much to see, as you can’t really get a good look down the narrow shaft. The real prize is the nearby short loop trail, where you can sit for a while in the saddle of Pele’s Paint Pot Lookout, the crater’s most brilliant vantage point.
LAU′ULU TRAIL
Also known as the Kalapawili Ridge Trail, this trail is overgrown and barely used but if you’re already deep in the crater at Paliku, then why not. The trouble is finding the trailhead, which is tucked behind the Paliku campground and cabin. From there just keep heading uphill; after an hour or two, the trail empties out onto the high-flying Kalapawili Ridge, which affords broad vistas