Limit proposed on traffic
up Haleakala at sunrise

One plan would require visitors
to take shuttles at peak hours

PUKALANI, Hawaii » Watching the sun rise from the summit of Haleakala on Maui has become so popular that the National Park Service is planning to limit the number of vehicles atop the dormant volcano.

More than 1.6 million visitors passed through Haleakala National Park last year, with sunrise at the crater attracting the largest crowds. That meant overflowing parking lots, natural resources being trampled and many visitors being unable to find a good position to watch the sun come up.

At a public meeting last week, longtime conservationist Mary Evanson leaned over to park Superintendent Don Reeser as a commercial operator spoke about the business ramifications of limiting the number of tourists at the Haleakala summit.

"You need to have two sunrises," she whispered.

Bill Byrnes, a Denver consultant hired by the Park Service, presented several alternatives to relieve congestion. They included stopping cars for periods before and after dawn while allowing a certain number of buses or vans to make the trek up the more than a dozen switchbacks to the summit.

Visitors would park their cars at a staging area, then board the shuttles for the summit. After the sunrise crowds leave, the limits on vehicles would drop, and motorists would be able to drive to the top.

A year-long study of the park's attendance figures, along with interviews of 1,000 visitors, revealed that as many as 27 bike-tour vans and 100 other vehicles were parked at the Haleakala Visitor Center and Red Hill at the summit during sunrise peak times.

The crowded summit at sunrise is not a new problem.

"I got here in 1988 and it was crowded then," Reeser said. "It slumped after the Gulf War, then it went back up. It slumped again after 9/11, then it came back. More people are moving to Maui, and we anticipate more visitors to the park, so it's good to have a plan."

Park officials are compiling a draft environmental assessment they hope will be ready for review by April.

Frank Baublits, chief of maintenance at the park, said much deliberation went on with park staff before looking into the shuttle alternative.

Park officials also consulted native Hawaiian elders, who thought Haleakala's sacred nature was being diminished by the crowds. The elders said opportunities to conduct cultural practices in peace had become scarce.

"The No. 1 factor (governing the park) is cultural and natural resources," Baublits said. "Then it's the visitor experience and socioeconomics. I don't think anyone today thinks that what's going on up there is appropriate. We need to look at some avenues to resolve those issues."

The reaction from some tour operators was positive.

Ray Hutaff of Ekahi Tours, which takes tourists to the summit in vans, supports the shuttle system.

"The Hawaiian culture needs to have the first say and the last say, and the rest of us need to adjust," said Hutaff. "I don't believe we need to harm Haleakala any more than we have."