Kaupo Gap Trail

"Fun with the Family"

Even avid hikers are tested on this trip, but backpackers on the Kaupo Gap trail stay in cabins. You have to carry water, food, personal gear, and a sleeping bag. These cabins ($40 per night for one to six people and $80 for groups of seven to twelve) each have twelve padded bunks, utensils and dishes, big wood-burning stoves, long refectory tables and benches, firewood, and outhouses. You spend the first night at Kapalaoa on the cinder-bottom floor of Haleakala Crater and the second night at Paliku beneath a rain forest cliff.

For the cabin lottery, information, and updates on ranger-led Kaupo Gap trips, contact Haleakala National Park, P.O. Box 369, Makawao 96768; 572–4400. Request a cabin two months before the first day of the month you want to visit. Each month a lottery is held for use of the cabins. Winners are notified by telephone.