Keonehe'ehe'e (Sliding Sands) Trail

The views from this hike are really unique, with red mountain soil meeting green plants and lots of interesting succulents along the way! 🌵 The terrain is mostly reasonable, but the sands and gravel are slippery, so it is advisable to wear proper hiking boots. 🥾 Also, be careful going down as it takes about 1 1/2 times as long going back up! I drank about 1.5 litres of water. 🍶 There is a water refill station outside the bathrooms but nothing during the hike.

Amazing hike! The initial descent is very easy with otherworldly surroundings. Loved how the vegetation gradually got thicker and we ended somewhere so different. The final ascent did have me a bit out of breath! But definitely doable. We did the 11 miles in about 4.5 hours with minimal breaks, easily hitching back a ride to the summit with the sunset crowd. Definitely recommend!

The Sliding Sands Trail (Keonehe‘ehe‘e Trail) is a well-known hiking route here, renowned for its spectacular crater views and otherworldly landscapes. Beginning near Haleakalā’s summit (at 10,023 feet), the trail descends into the crater, reaching depths of 2,800 feet. An overnight permit is required to go all the way to the bottom. Along the way, the volcanic terrain feels like stepping onto an alien planet, with lava flows, silversword plants resembling cacti, and breathtaking seas of clouds. It’s awe-inspiring! To our surprise, our little one walked the entire trail with us, chatting and laughing along the way! 👍 Looks like we, the adults, are the ones who need to work on our fitness! 😅

Did sunrise at Haleakala, had breakfast and then went down the Sliding sands trail that eventually meets with the Halemau’u trail that ends/starts close to the hiker pick up area —- took a little over 6 hrs with some stops. Recommend good hiking shoes, plenty of sunscreen and something waterproof (the clouds brought rain in and we were drenched but luckily had extra clothes). SO WORTH IT!

Excellent trail. Don't need to be an advanced hiker by any means to do this trail. A few switchbacks at the end to get up, but nothing crazy. A few areas with cliff edge path, safe but if you're afraid of heights, keep this in mind. Tips: bring wide brimmed sunhat with string tie as it's quite windy. Hiking boots are a must, the terrain is quite rocky and it would hurt a bit through regular shoes. Bring at least two litres of water per person. Hiking poles are recommended. Bring layers of clothing including windbreaker. All trails map recommended as it's not super well marked and most of the hike has no cell signal.

Summit to Halemau’u Trailhead hike (one way/through hike). Incredible hike. Super cool views at the top and very cool to watch the colors and vegetation change on the way down. You could also see the ocean on the north shore in a few spots. The hike up at the end was hard but great views and it was partially shaded by 3pm. The hike overall took exactly 6 hours with a few breaks of about 1 hour total. The app was a little off at times, but our final stats were 11.5mi and 2,500 elevation gain (2,200 gain the last 3mi).

Beautiful early in the morning after you see the sunrise. I made 10 km in total: to get down it was super easy and fun but going up was really tough. Consider that further you go down, more difficult it will be to go up, so evaluate your capabilities. At the end, I think it would have been fine to do 30 Min of trail one way and then to return up to the parking. I cannot say that by making 10 km I got a better view. But if you like walking, I recommend doing it (put layers as the temperature might change)

6 hours from the top to Pele’s paint pot. Difficult hike back up, much worse than coming down. Chilly.