Haleakala National Park is a U.S. federal park in Hawaii on the island of Maui. Haleakala National Park preserves the volcanic landscape of Haleakala. This park has 30,183 acres and 24,719 acres are chosen to be wilderness. Haleakala was once part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It was changed as a separate section on July 1 1961. It was also changed in 1980 to an International Biosphere Reserve.
Visitors can hike, camp, and visit: two camping areas, two drive-up areas, and two cabins for trips into the summit area. You can also go picnicking, swimming, photographing, and bird, star, and sky watching.
This Park has over 30 miles of hiking trials that vary from ten minutes to overnight trips. One of the long hikes that take all day is the one from Keoneheehee to Halemauu. This trail is a difficult 11.2 mile hike. As you follow the trail you go down 2,500 feet in 3.9 miles and there the trail splits. If you are hiker you may take the left trail that leads off of the Keoneheehee trail and leads into a spur trail. This spur trail leads to Holua. After hiking switchback trails for 2 miles it levels out for 1 mile to the Halemauu Trailhead and its parking lot where you should have left you vehicle. The common time for this trail is 6 to 8 hours.
Haleakala National Park also preserves Haleakala Crater. This crater is a memory of a once active volcano. There are tracks of red, yellow, gray, and black on this crater from lava, ash, and cinder flows. Volcanic rock is slowly broken down by the weather and is carried away by the wind and rain. This crater was developed by two valleys meeting and creating a crater. It has been several hundred years since the last volcanic flow in the crater. Even though this crater is dormant in 1790 two minor flows at a lower elevation reached the sea. If the lack of lava flow continues the volcano will become extinct.
On the windward side of Haleakala is the rain forest. The rain fall is at an annual range 120 inches to 400 inches or more. At the upper levels the forest canopy is dominant. On the leeward side of Haleakala, in the dry zone, the annual rain fall is 20 to 60 inches.
At Haleakala National Park there is no place to buy food, gas, or other materials. The park also has five unlike climate zones.