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Hula performers and officials wearing lei at the Haleakalā Highway opening in 1935

Maui History Series · Haleakalā

Haleakalā Highway History: The Road to the Summit

The 1935 highway transformed automobile access to Haleakalā, but it did not discover the mountain. It entered a storied, sacred Hawaiian landscape already crossed, named, remembered, and cared for across generations.

Follow the ascent through time

Photo: National Park Service source (opens in a new tab) · public domain U.S. federal work rights status (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized

A road within a much older story

Haleakalā was a destination before the switchbacks

For kānaka maoli, Haleakalā is a wahi pana—a storied place—and part of wao akua. National Park Service history describes pilgrimage, ceremony, star study and navigation, travel, and basalt adze making within the summit landscape. Native trails linked the summit depression with East Maui long before automobiles.

The name Haleakalā is commonly translated as “House of the Sun.” One well-known moʻolelo connects the mountain with Māui slowing the sun so his mother Hina had enough daylight to dry kapa. It should be approached as living cultural knowledge, not reduced to a decorative tourist legend.

1916Haleakalā enters Hawaiʻi National Park
10.677 MIHistoric NPS park-road segment
1935Summit highway opens
255Workers on the park road

Wahi pana, trail, ranch, and park

From foot and horseback travel to a mountain road

The automobile highway came after centuries of Hawaiian relationship with the summit and decades of visitor travel by trail and horse.

Sunrise light above clouds and the dark summit landform of Haleakalā
The highway approaches a summit landscape whose Hawaiian meaning and use long predate the national park and modern visitor facilities. Photo: National Park Service source (opens in a new tab) · public domain U.S. federal work rights status (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized
Road crew applying asphalt to Haleakalā Highway in 1934
Laborers apply asphalt to the park road in 1934, one year before the highway opened. Photo: Photographer unknown / National Park Service source (opens in a new tab) · public domain U.S. federal work rights status (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized
Heavy equipment surfacing the Haleakalā Highway in 1935
Construction machinery surfaces the highway in 1935 within Haleakalā’s volcanic terrain. Photo: National Park Service source (opens in a new tab) · public domain U.S. federal work rights status (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized

A sacred mountain and a network of trails

Native Hawaiian routes crossed the summit depression and connected high-elevation places with communities and resources in East Maui. The landscape supported travel, ceremony, observation of the sky, and quarrying of fine basalt for adzes. Calling the mountain “inaccessible” before the highway erases that knowledge and movement.

By the 1890s, guided horseback trips brought visitors to the summit, and a rest house at Kalahaku was built in 1894. There was no automobile road, but Haleakalā was neither unknown nor empty.

A federal park is layered onto the mountain

Haleakalā became part of Hawaiʻi National Park in 1916. In 1928, Haleakala Ranch transferred and exchanged summit lands with the federal government, helping establish the modern park land base. Those administrative changes altered ownership and management; they did not create the mountain’s cultural importance.

The full corridor is not one road built by one agency

The roughly 37-mile drive from Kahului to the summit uses a chain of roads and jurisdictions. The territorial approach from Kula toward the park was completed and opened to drivers in April 1933. The separate 10.677-mile National Park Service segment was built from 1933 to 1935.

This distinction matters: the familiar phrase “Haleakalā Highway” describes a complete journey, while historic engineering records often describe only the park road or one approach section. On the territorial road below the park—now designated State Route 378—superelevated, or banked, curves helped carry cars through the ascent.

  1. Before roads

    Trails cross the summit landscape

    Kānaka maoli travel, observe, work, remember, and maintain relationships with Haleakalā.

  2. 1890s

    Horseback tourism grows

    Guided summit travel becomes established before automobile access.

  3. 1916

    A national park is created

    Haleakalā joins Kīlauea and Mauna Loa within Hawaiʻi National Park.

  4. 1928

    Summit land transfers

    A ranch-federal exchange helps define the modern Summit District.

  5. 1931–33

    The territorial approach opens

    Road work from Kula creates the automobile approach to the park boundary.

Design, labor, celebration, and debate

Building the park road, 1933–1935

Engineers designed the ascent to reveal the summit gradually. Opening the mountain to cars also brought disagreement about what access would change.

A road designed as an experience

National Park Service and Bureau of Public Roads designers used switchbacks and staged views so the summit depression remained largely hidden during the climb. The principal reveal came after travelers left their cars near the rim.

Construction was confined to a narrow 14-foot corridor because separate access roads were prohibited. Crews shaped culverts, gutters, and a bridge with lava-rock masonry so essential engineering sat low in the volcanic landscape.

Opening day brought access and opposition

The 10.677-mile park road cost $369,758 and employed 255 men. Its February 23, 1935 dedication drew 1,639 people and 320 cars for hula, music, speeches, a lūʻau, and a national radio broadcast. Maui business leaders promoted the road as a way to bring more visitors to the island.

The celebration was not the whole story. National Park Service history records Native Hawaiian opposition to placing an automobile road across sacred Haleakalā, while other critics believed car access changed the experience of the mountain. By the end of 1935, park visitation had increased 455 percent.

The CCC era surrounded—but did not build—the highway

Civilian Conservation Corps camps operated at Haleakalā from 1934 to 1941. Enrollees built trails and frontcountry structures, controlled invasive plants and feral animals, and hauled materials and supplies for crater cabins and trails. Available records do not support saying the CCC built Haleakalā Highway itself.

Later wartime use, Mission 66 improvements, ecological restoration, and changing visitor systems continued altering how people reached and understood the summit. Haleakalā became a separate national park in 1961.

  1. 1933–35

    The park road climbs upward

    Workers shape a restrained alignment, drainage structures, and lava-rock masonry within the 10.677-mile park segment.

  2. Feb. 23, 1935

    The highway opens

    A large dedication celebrates automobile access while opposition and concern remain part of the record.

  3. 1934–41

    CCC park work expands

    Enrollees build trails and frontcountry structures, support conservation, and haul supplies for crater work—not construction of the highway itself.

  4. 1936–37

    Visitor center and cabins follow

    New summit facilities and backcountry shelters add to the visitor landscape.

  5. 1956–66

    Mission 66 changes access

    Postwar visitor improvements alter overlooks and facilities along the historic road.

  6. 1961

    Haleakalā becomes a separate park

    The Maui unit formally separates from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

Driving with kuleana

Notice the design while caring for the mountain

The route’s historical logic is visible from the public roadway and designated overlooks. Stewardship begins with staying inside those boundaries.

  • The delayed revealThe summit depression remains mostly hidden during the climb because the 1930s alignment saves the principal view for the rim.
  • Lava-rock masonryLow-profile culverts, walls, gutters, and bridge work reflect a landscape-design effort to reduce visual intrusion.
  • Living cultural meaningTreat Hawaiian names, moʻolelo, ceremony, and sacred places as living relationships rather than visitor decoration.
  • Fragile summit lifeSlow for wildlife, remain on established surfaces, never stack rocks, and leave plants, cinders, and artifacts untouched.

Related Maui history & tours

Continue with the places and experiences that share this chapter’s roads, water, communities, or working landscapes.

Continue the mountain story

See how the highway fits the wider landscape

The national park and Upcountry working lands reveal what existed before the road and what changed around it afterward.

Maui History Series Haleakalā National Park Sacred summit, park, and restoration
Photo: National Park Service source (opens in a new tab) · public domain U.S. federal work rights status (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized
Maui History Series Upcountry Ranches Paniolo, pasture, and mountain slopes
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr source (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 3.0 US license (opens in a new tab) · cropped and resized

Research notes

Sources & further reading

This chapter prioritizes National Park Service history and cultural-landscape research, Historic American Engineering Record documentation, and Hawaiʻi transportation records. It distinguishes the full Kahului-to-summit corridor from the 10.677-mile park road and the CCC era from highway construction.