What replaces the Bureau of Land Management here
Start with the absence. The Congressional Research Service records 861,254 federal acres in Hawaii against a total land area of 4,105,600, and splits them 379,534 to the Park Service, 310,218 to the Fish and Wildlife Service and 171,502 to Defense. The Bureau of Land Management line is zero and the Forest Service line is zero. The national route layer this site sums for every other state holds no Hawaii records at all, so no federal route mileage is stated on this page.
The state fills that gap and then some. The Forest Reserve System was created by the Territorial Government of Hawaiʻi through Act 44 on 25 April 1903, and it accounts for over 683,964 acres of state managed land by the division’s own summary, or 700,645 across 57 reserves by its island-by-island table. Those reserves break down as 20 on Hawaiʻi Island over 484,267 acres, nine on Kauaʻi over 86,406, ten across Maui Nui over 83,616 and 18 on Oʻahu over 46,356.
The welcome is stated and it is conditional. The division writes that the public is generally welcome into any forest reserve provided it is not dangerous or detrimental to human life or the sensitive resources, and that the system exists for recreation and hunting alongside watershed restoration, species habitat and access to cultural resources. Read that as an invitation with a purpose attached, rather than the open-ended public domain that the western states in this guide run on.
Nothing in that system behaves like a national forest for a driver. There is no motor vehicle use map, no numbered forest road grid and no general permission to pull off and sleep. What there is instead is a list of named features, a permit counter and a set of gates, and the next three sections are about reading them.
Source 42
Two national parks doing the work of a whole federal estate
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park was established on 1 August 1916 as the fifteenth national park, and it is where most of the driving on federal ground in this state happens. Its own fact sheet gives 354,461 acres, 106 miles of roads, 155 miles of marked trails, 123,100 acres of legislated wilderness, 121,015 acres of eligible wilderness and 7,850 acres of potential wilderness. It extends from sea level to 13,679 feet and encompasses the summits and rift zones of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.
A hundred and six miles of road is a modest figure and it is also, on a per-acre basis, generous by the standards of this state. Those miles carry Crater Rim Drive, Chain of Craters Road, Hilina Pali Road, Mauna Loa Road and Kahuku Road, which between them are most of the sealed and unsealed public driving a visitor will do on Hawaiʻi Island outside the highway system.
The park spans seven ecological zones, coast, lowland, mid-elevation woodland, rain forest, upland forest, subalpine and alpine, which is another way of saying that a single day’s driving here crosses more climate than a week does in most states. It took 1,580,961 recreational visits in 2022, which is the other thing to plan around.
Source 7
One agency owns a quarter of the state, and it is not federal
The Division of Forestry and Wildlife is the landlord to know. It manages over a million acres across Hawaii, roughly 25 percent of the land area of the state, under several different designations: forest reserves, natural area reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and game management areas, each with its own purpose and its own degree of welcome. A road that leaves a state highway and climbs into the trees is almost always crossing one of them.
Its classification system is worth understanding before a trip rather than at a gate. The division sorts its ground by conservation, forest product, hunting, recreation and vegetation priorities, which is why one reserve carries a maintained access road and hunter parking while the next carries a locked gate and a research permit. The public welcome the division states for forest reserves is general, not universal, and it is conditioned on the visit being neither dangerous nor detrimental to the resource.
The practical consequence for a vehicle is that there is no equivalent here of a national forest road system with a motor vehicle use map. What exists instead is a list: the named features in the Nā Ala Hele inventory, the campsites the division permits, and the roads the counties maintain. Anything not on a list is not an invitation.
Source 43
Nā Ala Hele is the nearest thing to a route map
Nā Ala Hele means the pathway, and the programme is the state trail and access system. It sits inside the Division of Forestry and Wildlife and manages trail access and maintenance for recreation, for access to cultural history and historic trails, and for commercial trail vendors where that is possible. Its councils are how access decisions get made: seven of them, one statewide and one for each of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi.
What those councils seat is unusual and worth noting. Membership represents hikers, hunters, bikers, equestrian riders, off-highway vehicle users, Hawaiian cultural representatives and practitioners, fishers, environmentalists and affected landowners. A driver with an interest in what stays open has a named seat at that table on their island.
The programme describes its holdings as trails and access roads maintained and designated for public use, and it groups off-highway vehicle use as one of its own subjects rather than as somebody else’s problem. That framing is the useful part. On these islands a driving route is a named, listed, maintained thing with a district specialist attached, and anything not on the list is not an invitation to try it.
Source 44
Getting the vehicle here, and what happens when it lands
Every other state guide on this site starts at a state line. This one starts at a dock, and the paperwork on the far side is real. The County of Hawaiʻi will let you drive a recently arrived vehicle that is still registered elsewhere, but only if the registration is in your own name, only after a Hawaii safety check inspection from an authorised station, and only with an out-of-state vehicle permit issued within 30 days of the vehicle’s arrival in the county.
The permit application wants the current out-of-state certificate of registration, a bill of lading or shipping receipt showing the date the vehicle arrived, and a Hawaii Certificate of Safety Check Inspection failed for registration only, which is valid for just 30 days. The permit costs five dollars. The out-of-state plates then stay valid until their expiration date or for 12 months, whichever comes first. One detail catches people with a single rear plate: the county states the vehicle must have two plates or the station will not pass it for a safety inspection.
If the vehicle is a rental instead, the contract is a rulebook of its own and it is not published by any agency. The one official acknowledgement of it in this state is on the Division of State Parks page for Polihale, which warns that rental car companies may prohibit use of their vehicles on that park access road. Read that as the general case. The roads this guide describes as requiring low range or four wheel drive are exactly the roads a rental agreement is most likely to exclude.
Source 50
The roads that name a drivetrain
Maunakea is the clearest. The eight-mile summit road above the Maunakea Visitor Information Station rises nearly 5,000 feet, its unpaved sections are only wide enough for single-lane traffic, and the Center for Maunakea Stewardship states that dependable, fully-operable 4WD or AWD vehicles are required for summit travel and that two-wheel drive vehicles are not permitted above the visitor station. The descent instruction is as specific as the ascent one: avoid brake overheating and failure by engaging 4WD-low, downshifting and tapping the brakes. There are no public petrol stations in the area, and the station recommends at least half a tank before going up.
Waipiʻo Valley Road is stricter still, because it is closed. A mayor’s emergency rule, first adopted in September 2022 and continued since under Hawaii Revised Statutes sections 264-1.5 and 127A-25(a), shuts the road to all pedestrians, to uncovered vehicles including all-terrain vehicles, and to horseback access. The limited exceptions are Hawaiʻi County residents, permitted licensed and insured tour operators, and Native Hawaiians claiming exercise of traditional or customary rights. Those who qualify must use low-range four wheel drive, which the rule says all-wheel drive vehicles are not, stay under 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, remain in four wheel drive mode at all times, carry passengers only in enclosed seating with seatbelts, and yield downhill to uphill traffic. The rules have the force and effect of law.
Two smaller ones matter for the same reason. The Division of State Parks marks Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area on Maui, at 6,200 feet inside the Kula Forest Reserve, as requiring a four wheel drive vehicle. Puʻu Lāʻau Road, four miles of dirt into Mauna Kea’s high-elevation dry forest at 7,000 feet, is documented by the state as needing four wheel drive too. And on Hawaiʻi Island the Park Service opens Kahuku Road above the cross fence to 4WD vehicles.
Set against those, the famous roads are mild. Hilina Pali Road is a nine-mile single lane paved road that two-wheel drive vehicles can use. The Haleakalā summit is 11 miles of paved road above the entrance station. Chain of Craters Road is paved for its whole length. Hawaii asks less of an articulating suspension than almost any state on this site, and more of your reading of who owns the road.
Source 25
Where a vehicle may legally sleep
This is the part that surprises people. The Division of State Parks writes that Hawaiʻi’s state park campgrounds are not set up for camping in vehicles, including campers, vans and trailers, and that sleeping in vehicles in campground car parks is therefore not allowed. The single exception is Waiʻānapanapa State Park on Maui, where camper vehicles are allowed with a valid campervan permit and only vehicles equipped for camping or sleeping are approved, in designated sections.
Kauai County is blunter: all campers must sleep in a tent, mobile and vehicle camping is not allowed, and vehicles are only allowed in the designated campground car park. Maui County allows two vehicles per permit and requires the tent and vehicle descriptions on the permit itself, but keeps vehicles in the designated car park as well. Haleakalā National Park states that staying overnight or sleeping within a vehicle outside of a campground is prohibited.
The stay limits are short everywhere and they are not the same number twice. State parks allow five consecutive nights under one permit at any one park or campground, and a permit is denied if the applicant has camped at that same park within the preceding thirty days. Napali Coast allows five nights total, at Hanakoa and Kalalau only. Kauai County allows six consecutive days per permit, five at Lydgate, and 60 camping days in a calendar year. Maui County allows four consecutive nights and no more than eight days a month. Haleakalā allows three nights in any thirty-day period across the whole park. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes allows seven days at Nāmakanipaio and seven consecutive days at Kulanaokuaiki.
Forest reserves are a separate permission again. The Division of Forestry and Wildlife issues camping permits for certain sites managed as forest reserves and along some Nā Ala Hele trails, states that anyone wishing to camp within a forest reserve is required to obtain one, and allows camping only at official campsites. The rules regulating activities within forest reserves say the same thing in legal form: nobody may camp, pitch a tent or tarpaulin, or use recreational trailers or other camper units within any forest reserve except with the prior written authorisation of the board.
Source 28
Two seasons, fifteen times the rain, and a road that melts
The Weather Service office in Honolulu sets the frame. Over the ocean near Hawaii, rainfall averages between 25 and 30 inches a year, and the islands receive as much as 15 times that amount in some places and less than one third of it in others. Maximum rainfall on the mountains falls between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, which is exactly the band most of the drivable dirt sits in. For most of Hawaii there are only two seasons, summer between May and October and winter between October and April, and winter brings the heaviest rain.
That single sentence about fifteen times the rain is the practical fact for anyone planning a route. Two roads a few miles apart can be a dry cinder track and a rutted bog on the same afternoon. Polihale’s entry road floods during rains and becomes impassable, and the state says so on the park page rather than in a conditions feed. The trade winds run year round but in winter may be interrupted for days or weeks by fronts and migratory cyclones.
Temperature is an altitude problem, not a latitude one. The state record low is 12 degrees on Mauna Kea at 13,770 feet, in May. The state record high is 100 degrees at Pāhala, at 870 feet on Hawaiʻi Island, in April. A vehicle that left a beach at eighty degrees an hour ago can be sitting in frost.
Source 54
The other moving surface is lava
Kīlauea is a basalt shield volcano with a summit elevation of 4,009 feet, and the U.S. Geological Survey records that it has erupted dozens of times since 1952. Mauna Loa stands at 13,679 feet, covers half of Hawaiʻi Island, is described by the same agency as the largest active volcano on the planet, and has erupted 34 times since its first well-documented historical eruption in 1843, most recently beginning on 27 November 2022.
Those sentences have a direct consequence for a road map. Between 1983 and 2018 the Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption inundated nearly nine miles of Chain of Craters Road, and a road that had run through to Kalapana since 1965 now ends at the Hōlei Sea Arch. No other state on this site has a published mechanism for a highway simply ceasing to exist.
Treat any road description on Hawaiʻi Island as a description of a moment. Lengths in this guide come from the agency that owns the road and are stated with the date they were read, which is the only honest way to publish a figure that a volcano is entitled to change.
Source 6
Haleakalā stops being drivable at the car park
The Wilderness Area inside Haleakalā National Park encompasses 24,719 acres, and every acre of it is reached on foot. The Keoneheʻeheʻe trailhead near the summit sits at 9,740 feet, and the two wilderness tent areas below it, Hōlua and Palikū, are at 6,940 and 6,380 feet. The paved summit road is the entire vehicle access to that side of the mountain.
For a driver this is a cleaner arrangement than most states manage. There is no ambiguous two-track, no question about whether a jeep road is still a road. The park draws the line at the tarmac and everything past it is wilderness with a permit and a pair of boots. Reserve the tent area up to six months ahead, carry the printed confirmation, and understand that a reservation for a tent area grants nothing at the ranger shelter or the visitor cabin.
Source 21
A refuge closed because of what vehicles carry
The Fish and Wildlife Service holds 310,218 acres in Hawaii, and the flagship of it is shut. Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge is closed to self-guided activities and all its other units remain closed. The reason is Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, which the service says has killed thousands of acres of mature ʻōhiʻa trees in forests and residential areas on Hawaiʻi Island, and which it states can be transported on contaminated soil found on vehicles, tools, shoes and clothing. Access to the Pua ʻĀkala unit is by commercial guides holding a special use permit.
That is the most important sentence in this guide for anyone who drives dirt. A federal refuge here has been closed to the public because of what vehicles carry. Behave accordingly on the ground that is still open.
Source 24
Washing the truck is a rule, not a courtesy
Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death is a fungal pathogen that attacks and can quickly kill ʻōhiʻa trees, and the state asks drivers directly to help stop it moving. The instruction from the Hawaii Invasive Species Council is to wash your vehicle with a high pressure hose or washer if you have been off-roading or have picked up mud from driving, and to clean all soil off tyres, wheel wells and undercarriage.
That is not advisory everywhere. The Fish and Wildlife Service closed Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge to self-guided activities over exactly this disease, which it says has killed thousands of acres of mature ʻōhiʻa trees on Hawaiʻi Island and can be transported on contaminated soil found on vehicles, tools, shoes and clothing. On Maunakea the Center for Maunakea Stewardship requires that vehicles be free of invasive species before travelling up, and states that a muddy vehicle should not go to the summit.
Treat a pressure washer as recovery gear on this trip. The cost of skipping it is not a fine, it is a forest, and the agencies that manage the ground you want to drive have already closed part of it for the same reason.
Source 47
Where you cannot drive at all, and where a permit lets you
The state park rules are a short read with a long reach. Chapter 13-146 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules prohibits driving or operating any motorised vehicle, including cars, trucks, vans, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds, scooters and trail bikes, except on designated trails and roads that are managed for motorised use, and prohibits parking, stopping or standing except on roads and parking areas laid out or provided for parking. Unlicensed vehicles and off-highway vehicles may not be driven or even possessed in a park area except where signage designates off-highway vehicle use.
That is the rule the Department of Land and Natural Resources points to when it says driving on the beach or through the dunes at Polihale is illegal, alongside camping there without a permit. Thirty speed bumps were installed on the park’s five-mile-long unimproved entry road to slow the damage. Nowhere in this guide is there a permitted beach driving area of the kind Delaware or Texas runs.
The one place the state issues a road permit to a private vehicle is Kaʻena Point State Park on Oʻahu. A Vehicle Access Special Use Permit is required to drive beyond the gate and the paved road that ends at the gravel car park in the Mokuleʻia section. The permit conditions require drivers to stay on a limited number of designated dirt roads, and the state stresses that this is not a four wheel drive recreation area, but that the designated roads exist for responsible access for fishing, sightseeing, coastal access and reaching the Natural Area Reserve and the point. During closed park hours, permit holders may only enter from the Dillingham airfield entrance and transit straight through, with no stopping, standing or parking.
Napali Coast is the other end of the scale. No road reaches it. The 11-mile Kalalau Trail is the way in, Hanakoa and Kalalau are the only two authorised camping areas along it, and the whole park allows five nights total. Getting to the trailhead at Hāʻena State Park needs both an entry reservation for everyone in the vehicle and a parking reservation if you are not a Hawaii resident, available 30 days in advance.
Source 37
No byways, and the roads that do the same job
The Federal Highway Administration’s answer for this state is one line: none of America’s Byways are in Hawaii. No All-American Road, no National Scenic Byway, nothing. Every other state guide on this site leans on that programme for lengths and descriptions, and here it gives nothing at all.
The state’s own route table fills part of the hole. The Highways Division measures Route 200, the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and Saddle Road, at 45.62 miles, running from the Hilo urban boundary to Māmalahoa Highway. Route 11, the belt road that carries Hawaiʻi Volcanoes, is 121.98 miles. Route 19 is 99.49, Route 190 is 38.97, and Route 240, the road out to the Waipiʻo Valley lookout, is 9.59. On Maui, Route 36 of the Hāna Highway is 16.21 miles, Route 37 is 21.34 and Route 377 is 9.14. On Kauaʻi, Route 50 is 32.92 miles and Route 56 is 28.12.
Saddle Road is the one worth knowing the history of. The Department of Transportation says 41 miles of highway were built from 2004 onwards at a cost of 290 million dollars awarded from federal, state, Army and other sources, replacing what it calls once one of the most precarious highways in the state: a single-lane road the U.S. Army put in during 1942. The Maunakea Access Road leaves it at milepost 28. That junction is the single most useful waypoint on this island.
Source 58
Passes and routes
-
Daniel K. Inouye Highway, Saddle RoadPaved
45.62 miles as Route 200
Hilo urban boundary to Māmalahoa Highway, Route 190
The road across the island between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and the spine of every drive on Hawaiʻi Island. The Department of Transportation built 41 miles of new highway from 2004, at a cost of 290 million dollars awarded from federal, state, Army and other sources, to replace what it calls once one of the most precarious highways in the state, a single-lane road the U.S. Army put in during 1942. The Maunakea Access Road leaves it at milepost 28. 55
-
Maunakea Access Road and the summit road
9,200 ft Eight miles of summit road above the visitor station
The Maunakea Visitor Information Station sits at 9,200 feet on the Maunakea Access Road, reached from the Daniel K. Inouye Highway at milepost 28, and opens daily from 9am to 9pm. Above it the eight-mile summit road rises nearly 5,000 feet, with unpaved sections only wide enough for single-lane traffic, because the road to the summit is unpaved, rough and quite steep. The station recommends at least half a tank of fuel before going up, and requires that a vehicle be free of invasive species before it travels on the mountain at all. 26
- Vehicle
- Dependable, fully-operable 4WD or AWD required above the visitor station. Two-wheel drive vehicles are not permitted
-
Closed to the public by a mayor’s emergency rule that has the force and effect of law, first adopted in September 2022 and continued since. All pedestrians are prohibited, as are uncovered vehicles including all-terrain vehicles, and horseback access. Vehicular access is limited to Hawaiʻi County residents, permitted licensed and insured tour operators, and Native Hawaiians claiming exercise of traditional or customary rights. Passengers must be in enclosed seating with seatbelts, and vehicles heading down yield to vehicles heading up. The road closes entirely during significant weather events as determined by the county civil defence agency. 49
- Vehicle
- Low-range four wheel drive only, engaged at all times, under 10,000 pounds GVWR. All-wheel drive does not qualify
-
Route 240 to the Waipiʻo Valley lookoutPaved
9.59 miles
Honokaʻa to the lookout above the valley
The paved county approach along the Hāmākua coast, measured by the Highways Division as Māmane Street and the Honokaʻa-Waipiʻo Road. It ends at the rim. What happens below the rim is governed by the emergency rule, not by this road. 57
-
Chain of Craters RoadPaved
18.8 miles to the end of the road, or 18.7 from the Devastation Trailhead
The Kīlauea summit area down to the Hōlei Sea Arch
The drive from the summit of Kīlauea to the sea inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, about 30 minutes without stops. No food, water or fuel is available along it, and vault toilets sit at the Maunaulu car park and at the end of the road. The road once carried on to Kalapana, opened from Makaopuhi in 1965, until the Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption inundated nearly nine miles of it. The park’s own two pages give 18.8 and 18.7 miles for slightly different endpoints, and both are stated here. 8
-
Crater Rim DrivePaved
5.6 miles one-way
Uēkahuna to the Devastation Trailhead car park
The scenic drive around the summit of Kīlauea, about 20 minutes without stops. The park recommends starting at Uēkahuna and working clockwise, and the welcome centre sits 1.2 miles beyond the entrance station on the right. 9
-
Hilina Pali RoadPaved
9 miles
A nine-mile single lane paved road inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes, narrow, winding and remote, with no services along the route and weather the park describes as windy and dry. Kulanaokuaiki Campground sits on it at 2,700 feet, and pets are not allowed in the campground or anywhere on this road. 10
- Vehicle
- Two-wheel drive vehicles can use it
-
A narrow, one-lane road inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes climbing to the Mauna Loa Lookout at 6,662 feet, the highest point a road reaches in the park. The Park Service publishes no length or surface class for it, so none is stated here. Everything beyond the lookout is trail, and any overnight trip from it needs a backcountry permit. 15
-
The road inside the 116,000-acre Kahuku Unit of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes, which became part of the park in 2003 and sits on Highway 11 near mile marker 70.5, about an hour from the main park. The Park Service opens Kahuku Road above the cross fence to 4WD vehicles, which gives easier access to the Kona Trail and the Upper and Lower Glover Trails. 16
- Vehicle
- 4WD above the cross fence
- Season
- The unit opens Thursdays through Sundays, 8am to 4pm
-
Haleakalā Crater Road to the summitPaved
10,023 ft 11 miles of paved road above the entrance station
Route 378 runs from the Haleakalā Highway junction to the national park boundary, and inside the park 11 miles of paved road climb a further 3,000 feet to the 10,023-foot summit. Summit temperatures can reach 32 degrees or below and warm to 50 or 60. There are no petrol stations within the park and the last fuel on the way up is at Pukalani. The park warns that even electric vehicles with a full charge have been unable to make it to the summit, and asks for the posted speed because the road goes through endangered species habitat. 17
- Season
- Entry between 3am and 7am needs a sunrise reservation
-
Hāna Highway to the Kīpahulu districtPaved
Route 36 is 16.21 miles; the Kīpahulu district is 12 miles past Hāna
Kahului to Hāna and on to Kīpahulu
The Park Service reaches its coastal district by Routes 36, 360 and 31, and gives the drive from Kahului as roughly four hours. There are no petrol stations within the park, and the last place to get fuel along the Hāna Highway before Hāna is Pāʻia. The Highways Division publishes a length for Route 36 but none for Route 360, the stretch that carries the bridges and the curves, so none is stated here. 22
-
The Kīpahulu district road endPaved
12 miles past Hāna
The Park Service says the Kīpahulu District of Haleakalā National Park is reached by driving 12 miles past the town of Hāna on the Hāna Highway. Drive-up camping is available there, and the Park Service describes it as often wet, remote and far from most amenities. It is one of only two federal campgrounds in the state that our build of the federal recreation database finds a vehicle can reach. 23
-
Piʻilani Highway, Route 31Paved
7.15 miles as the numbered route
The Mokulele Highway and North Kihei Road junction to Wailea Ike Drive
Worth listing for what it is not. The Highways Division defines Route 31 as running only from the Mokulele Highway and North Kihei Road intersection to Wailea Ike Drive, which is south Kihei and nothing more. The unpaved road that continues around the south flank of Haleakalā past Kaupō carries the same name in conversation but no state route length, so this guide states none for it. 56
-
Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area road
6,200 ft
The state recreation area sits at 6,200 feet inside the Kula Forest Reserve on the upper slopes of Haleakalā, and the Division of State Parks marks it as requiring a four wheel drive vehicle. Camping is by reservation at 20 dollars a night per campsite for residents and 30 for non-residents, with cabins booked separately by phone or in person. 30
- Vehicle
- Four wheel drive vehicle required, in the state’s own words
-
Polihale State Park access road
Five miles of unimproved dirt
The Division of State Parks describes the road to the park as an unimproved dirt road that may flood during rains and become impassable, with other areas of deep sand. The department installed 30 speed bumps on the five-mile entry road to discourage speeding and the damage it does. Camping is by permit only, 20 dollars a night per campsite for residents and 30 for non-residents. Driving on the beach or through the dunes is illegal. 29
- Vehicle
- Four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended. Rental companies may prohibit their vehicles on it
-
Kaʻena Point, Mokuleʻia section
The one place the state issues a road permit to a private vehicle. The permit is required to drive beyond the gate where the paved road ends at the gravel car park, and its conditions keep drivers on a limited number of designated dirt roads. The state says outright that this is not a four wheel drive recreation area, and that the roads exist for access to fishing, sightseeing, the coast, the Natural Area Reserve and the point. The walk to the point from either trailhead is about 2.5 miles one way. 33
- Vehicle
- Vehicle Access Special Use Permit required beyond the gate. Designated dirt roads only
-
Puʻu Lāʻau Road
7,000 ft 4 miles of dirt
A state-documented dirt road into Mauna Kea’s high-elevation dry forest at 7,000 feet, one of the last large tracts of dry forest left in Hawaii and the reason the road exists. Nā Ala Hele lists it, together with the Mauna Kea Access Road and Skyline Road, among the roads in the Mauna Kea riding area. 48
- Vehicle
- Four wheel drive vehicles are required
-
Hawaiʻi Belt Road, Route 11, to the volcanoPaved
121.98 miles as a whole route
Hilo and Kailua-Kona around the south of the island
The Park Service gives Hawaiʻi Volcanoes as 30 miles southwest of Hilo on Highway 11, a 45 minute drive, or 95 miles southeast of Kailua-Kona at two to two and a half hours. The northern alternative through Waimea and Hilo on Highways 19 and 11 is 125 miles and two and a half to three hours. The Kahuku Unit sits on the same highway near mile marker 70.5. 14
-
Kōkeʻe Road and the canyon rim, KauaʻiPaved
4,000 ft
The road up the west side of Kauaʻi to Waimea Canyon and Kōkeʻe State Park, which the Division of State Parks describes as giving views of the Kalalau Valley from 4,000 feet. Camping at Kōkeʻe is by permit only at 20 dollars a night per campsite for residents and 30 for non-residents, released 90 days ahead. The state publishes no length for the road, so none is stated here. 32
Rules worth knowing
- A vehicle is not a bed in a Hawaii state park
- The Division of State Parks states that Hawaiʻi’s state park campgrounds are not set up for camping in vehicles, including campers, vans and trailers, and that sleeping in vehicles in campground car parks is therefore not allowed. Camping in the system is 20 dollars a night per campsite for residents and 30 for non-residents, for up to ten people, and a permittee may reserve no more than one campsite or cabin in any given park at a time. 28
- The one campervan permit in the state park system
- Waiʻānapanapa State Park, near the end of the Hāna Highway in east Maui, is the exception the camping page names. Camper vehicles, also called campervans, are allowed there with a valid campervan permit, only vehicles equipped for camping or sleeping are approved, and they go in designated sections of the park. Camping is 20 dollars a night per campsite for residents and 30 for non-residents, with cabins at 70 and 100. The park also gates day use: non-residents pay five dollars a person to enter and ten dollars a vehicle to park, choose a time slot to spread visitation across the day, and the park runs 7am to 6pm. 31
- Five consecutive nights, then thirty days away
- Chapter 13-146 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules sets the maximum camping duration under each permit at any one park or campground at five consecutive nights, and directs that a camping permit be denied if the applicant or anyone covered by it has camped in or been issued a permit for the same park or campground within the preceding thirty days. Camping and the use of recreational trailers or other camper units is only permitted at locations the board designates, and camping equipment must be completely removed and the campsite cleaned before you leave. 37
- Designated roads only, and no driving on the beach
- The same chapter prohibits driving or operating any motorised vehicle, including cars, trucks, vans, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds, scooters and trail bikes, except on designated trails and roads that are managed for motorised use, and prohibits parking, stopping or standing anywhere but on roads and parking areas provided for it. Unlicensed vehicles and off-highway vehicles may not be driven or possessed in a park area except where signage designates off-highway vehicle use. The department applies that rule directly at Polihale, where it states that driving on the beach or through the dunes is illegal, and where 30 speed bumps were installed on the five-mile unimproved entry road. 36
- Waipiʻo Valley Road is closed, and the exceptions name a drivetrain
- A mayor’s emergency rule adopted under Hawaii Revised Statutes sections 264-1.5 and 127A-25(a), first promulgated on 15 September 2022 and continued since, closes Waipiʻo Valley Road to all pedestrians, to uncovered vehicles including all-terrain vehicles, and to horseback access. Vehicular access is limited to Hawaiʻi County residents, permitted licensed and insured tour operators, and Native Hawaiians claiming exercise of traditional or customary rights. Vehicular use is limited to low-range four wheel drive vehicles, and the rule states that all-wheel drive vehicles are not low-range four wheel drive vehicles. Gross vehicle weight rating must not exceed 10,000 pounds, four wheel drive must be engaged at all times, passengers must be in enclosed seating wearing seatbelts, and downhill traffic yields to uphill. Tour operator permits run four months. The rules have the force and effect of law. 49
- Two-wheel drive stops at 9,200 feet on Maunakea
- The Center for Maunakea Stewardship requires dependable, fully-operable 4WD or AWD vehicles for summit travel and states that two-wheel drive vehicles are not permitted above the Visitor Information Station. Drivers are told to engage 4WD-low, downshift and tap the brakes on descent to avoid brake overheating and failure, to carry enough fuel because there are no public petrol stations in the area, and to have at least half a tank before going up. Nobody under 13, pregnant, intoxicated, who has dived within 24 hours, or with high blood pressure, heart or respiratory conditions should go above the station. Public and commercial activities on the mountain sit under Chapter 20-26 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules, and only university-permitted operators may run commercial tours. 25
- Shipping a vehicle in starts a 30-day clock
- The County of Hawaiʻi allows a recently arrived vehicle still registered in another state to be driven only if the registration is in your own name, a Hawaii safety check inspection has been obtained from an authorised station, and an out-of-state vehicle permit is issued within 30 days of the vehicle’s arrival in the county. The application needs the current out-of-state registration, a bill of lading or shipping receipt showing the arrival date, and a Hawaii Certificate of Safety Check Inspection failed for registration only, itself valid for 30 days. The permit costs five dollars, and the out-of-state plates stay valid until their expiration date or for 12 months, whichever comes first. A vehicle with only one plate will not pass the safety check. 50
- Wash the undercarriage before you move between forests
- Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death is a fungal pathogen that attacks and can quickly kill ʻōhiʻa trees, and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council asks drivers to wash the vehicle with a high pressure hose or washer after any off-road driving or mud, and to clean all soil off tyres, wheel wells and undercarriage. The Fish and Wildlife Service closed Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge to self-guided activities over this disease, saying it has killed thousands of acres of mature ʻōhiʻa on Hawaiʻi Island and can be transported on contaminated soil found on vehicles, tools, shoes and clothing. On Maunakea, vehicles must be free of invasive species before travelling to the summit. 47
- Forest reserve camping is by permit, at official campsites only
- The Division of Forestry and Wildlife states that all persons, groups, organisations or associations wishing to camp within a forest reserve are required to obtain a camping permit, and that camping is only allowed at official campsites. The permits it issues cover certain sites managed as forest reserves and some sites along Nā Ala Hele trails, and applications go through the state’s online system or the district office on the island where the trip happens, never at the site itself. 39
- Where the forest reserve campsites actually are
- The division lists them by island. On Kauaʻi they sit in the Puʻu Ka Pele Forest Reserve, which holds three campgrounds, the Nā Pali-Kona Forest Reserve, which holds four, and the Alakaʻi Wilderness Preserve, which holds a cabin. On Oʻahu they are in the Kuaokalā, Mokulēʻia, Pūpūkea, ʻEwa, Honolulu Watershed and Kuliʻouʻou forest reserves. Molokaʻi has the Molokaʻi Forest Reserve, and Hawaiʻi Island has Kapāpala, Hilo and Kohala. A printed copy of the permit must be carried while camping or lodging in any of them. 40
- The forest reserve rules are short and they cover the truck
- Chapter 13-104 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules, which regulates activities within forest reserves under sections 183-11 and 183-15 of the statutes, prohibits driving, operating or using any motorised vehicle in any area or trails not designated for that purpose, and prohibits parking any motorised or non-motorised vehicle or trailer except in designated areas. It prohibits camping, pitching a tent or tarpaulin, or using recreational trailers or other camper units within any forest reserve except with the prior written authorisation of the board. Its fire rules prohibit building a fire on the ground or in any structure, building a fire without a portable stove or other self-contained unit, leaving a fire unattended without extinguishing all traces of heat, and starting a fire in windy conditions. 38
- Off-highway vehicles: permit, designated trail, spark arrester
- Nā Ala Hele states that non-licensed vehicle use is only allowed on designated trails with a required permit, and that every rider of a non-licensed vehicle needs one. Licensed dirt bikes and licensed 4x4 automobiles do not. All off-highway vehicles must be equipped with a spark arrester approved by the U.S. Forest Service, and it is unlawful to operate one under the influence or in a manner that endangers others. The named riding areas are the Upper Waiākea ATV and Dirt Bike Park and the Mauna Kea area on Puʻu Lāʻau Road, the Mauna Kea Access Road and Skyline Road on Hawaiʻi Island, the Kahuku Motocross Park on Oʻahu, and the Maui Motocross Track. 45
- Kauaʻi County: sleep in a tent, and no vehicle camping at all
- Kauai County limits permits to a maximum of six consecutive days, five at Lydgate, and limits campers to 60 camping days within a calendar year. It states that all campers must sleep in a tent, that mobile and vehicle camping is not allowed, and that vehicles are only allowed in the designated campground car park. Camping is free for Hawaii residents at every county campground except Lydgate and costs non-resident adults three dollars per person per day, with children exempt. Campgrounds can be entered from noon and must be vacated by 10am on closure days, several parks close weekly for maintenance, and the rules carry fines of up to 100 dollars a day. 52
- Maui County: four nights, two vehicles, no open fires
- The County of Maui requires a camping permit for all camping at designated campsites, displayed at all times at the tent and in the vehicles. Permits run to a maximum of four consecutive nights and are not issued to anyone for more than eight days a month. Each permit covers six campers, two vehicles and one licensed dog, and every camper must be named on it along with the tent and vehicle descriptions. Open campfires are prohibited in parks and campsites; a personal barbecue or hibachi is allowed on a non-flammable barrier in a safe location. Permitted campgrounds are Papalaua Wayside Beach Park on West Maui and One Aliʻi and Papohaku on Molokaʻi, each with a four-day maximum and a weekly maintenance closure. 53
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes charges 30 dollars and takes no cash
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes charges 30 dollars a private vehicle, admitting the pass holder and up to 14 passengers, 25 dollars a motorcycle valid for seven days and admitting up to two private non-commercial machines, and 15 dollars a person on foot or bicycle aged 16 or over. The Hawaiʻi Tri-Park Annual Pass is 55 dollars, valid for 12 months from the month of purchase. The park does not accept cash. 13
- Haleakalā charges by the vehicle and sells sunrise separately
- Haleakalā charges 30 dollars a private vehicle and 25 a motorcycle, each valid for three days, and 15 dollars a person without a vehicle. Entry between 3am and 7am needs a sunrise reservation, which costs one dollar a vehicle on top of the entrance fee. The park does not accept cash, and its after-hours self-pay machines take credit cards only. Budget the time as well as the money: the park gives the drive from Kahului to the summit district as 45 minutes to an hour, from Kīhei as one to one and a half hours, and from Lāhainā as one and a half to two. 18
- Haleakalā: three nights in thirty, and none of them in the vehicle
- Haleakalā limits overnight stays to a maximum of three in total across all park areas in any thirty-day period, and states that staying overnight or sleeping within a vehicle outside of a campground is prohibited. Reservations are taken for Hosmer Grove in the summit district and Kīpahulu in the coastal district, and pets are not permitted in or around campsite facilities. Three nights across an entire national park is the tightest camping allowance in this guide, and it applies whether you sleep at 7,000 feet or at sea level. 19
- Hosmer Grove is six sites at nearly seven thousand feet
- Hosmer Grove Campground sits just past the entrance gate of Haleakalā National Park at nearly 7,000 feet, with six designated sites in an open grassy area at 20 dollars a night, and reservations are now required through Recreation.gov. The booking text is specific about vehicles: each campsite allows a maximum of one vehicle in designated parking spaces with one more allowed in overflow, the sites are for tents only, and camping trailers or pop-up campers are permitted only in allowed parking spaces with a reservation. There are no showers and no electrical outlets, there is a water station and vault toilets, and nighttime temperatures can drop to near freezing in winter. 20
- The volcano has two drive-in campgrounds and both are first come
- Nāmakanipaio sits at 4,000 feet, 31.5 miles south of Hilo on Highway 11, with drive-in sites at 15 dollars a night and a maximum stay of seven days; its rustic cabins take reservations but the drive-in sites do not. Kulanaokuaiki sits at 2,700 feet on Hilina Pali Road, at 10 dollars a night per site or five with a senior or access pass, for seven consecutive days, on a first-come basis. Pets are not allowed in that campground or anywhere on Hilina Pali Road. Neither campground appears in the federal recreation database this site builds from, because neither is booked through Recreation.gov. 11
- Backcountry at the volcano costs ten dollars and books 90 days out
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes charges a non-refundable 10 dollar backcountry permit fee per trip, payable by debit or credit card and additional to the entrance fee, with reservations made online up to 90 days ahead. All eight backcountry sites, Kaʻaha, Halapē, Keauhou, ʻĀpua Point, Nāpau, Pepeiao Cabin, Red Hill Cabin and Mauna Loa Cabin, require one. Water is caught off the roofs of three-walled shelters and cabins into catchment tanks, and the park states plainly that water is not always available and that there are no streams in the area. Carry what you need from the vehicle. 12
- Kauaʻi’s north shore road ends in a reservation system
- Non-residents must buy both an entry reservation, required for everyone in the vehicle, and a parking reservation to use Hāʻena State Park at the end of the north shore road. Both are released 30 days in advance. Hawaii residents are free with a State of Hawaii identification. This is the one place in the state where the question is not whether the vehicle can get there but whether it has a booking, and the answer is checked at the gate. 35
- Nāpali Coast has no road at all
- Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park is reached on foot along the 11-mile Kalalau Trail and nowhere else. Hanakoa and Kalalau are the only two authorised areas for camping along the trail, the total number of nights allowed for camping in the park is five, and camping permits are available 90 days in advance at 25 dollars per night per campsite for residents and 35 for non-residents. Leave the vehicle at Hāʻena under an overnight parking reservation, which the state issues only to holders of a Kalalau camping permit. 34
- County of Hawaiʻi camping is permitted, paid and bought in person or online
- The County of Hawaiʻi Department of Parks and Recreation offers permitted camping at designated beach parks and permitted lodging at the Gilbert Kahele Recreation Area, and states that permits, which require a fee, are necessary in order to camp in county parks. They can be bought online or in person, and the in-person counters are spread around the island at the Aupuni Center in Hilo, the Kailua Park permit office in Kailua-Kona, and satellite offices at Waimea, Kapaʻau, Nāʻālehu and Pāhala. Call the satellite offices ahead, because staffing hours vary. 51
- Commercial activity on Maunakea runs under its own chapter of the rules
- Public and commercial activities on Mauna Kea lands are governed by Chapter 20-26 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules. Only commercial tour operators permitted by the University of Hawaiʻi may run commercial tours on the land it manages, and the university is not currently permitting additional ones. Cycling needs written permission under section 20-26-30(1), accepted by registration form, and is restricted to the summit access road. Filming for sale, production or publicity needs a permit from the State of Hawaiʻi Film Office. Vehicles must be free of invasive species and a muddy vehicle should not go to the summit. 27
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
