Hosmer Grove Campground — Haleakalā National Park

Camping at Hosmer is like camping in a neighbor's nice grassy yard with everyone from the HOA's kids and conversations. The campground is just a square patch of soft green grass with some grills and potable water spouts. There is a nice enclosed pit toilet and a covered grill area for bad weather.

There would be no appeal here except...

• The campground is at the entrance to the Haleakalā National Park, allowing you to wake up and explore as opposed to make an early drive a couple miles up a windy road if you were doing a longer hike.
• The campground is home to a nature trail through a Frankenstein'd woods where they planted numerous different trees after logging the area in the old days searching for a fast growing tree they could then log again. It's a little bit of the Pacific Northwest in Hawaii, but with all the Hawaiian plantlife as well.
• The bird watching is wild. The confluence of water and mixed plants makes this a perfect spot for bird watching, including some rare and endangered birds.
• Did I mention the location?

They offer reservations of up to 3 days per month, which offers ample opportunity to explore the park and the volcano crater fully, but it is not wilderness camping or amenable to any sort of RV. Know that at camp, if there is an a-hole (or group of a-holes), they are going to be part of your stay. Similarly, if there is an expert on local birds, they become part of the group too!

The 6 sites in the only developed camping area in the park offer a great place to stage your morning sunrise experience in Haleakala. They are popular and very inexpensive($5 per night). The campsites are clustered into a small lawn area on a gently sloping hillside. While each tent platform is level, the parking lot definitely is not. So, if you plan to bring a camping vehicle, van, platform tent truck, or small camper, get there early to grab the most level spots (there are 2). And if your tent platform folds out to the side of the truck- please don’t take up two parking spots, figure it out so that others can also enjoy a good night’s sleep. Yes, this happened to us– ugggh! 

Night time temperatures can be in the 30’s and 40’s and we found that the bedding provided in our rental camper was not enough. Fortunately, we brought along our down sleeping bag and puffy jackets(they were definitely needed during January), but could be needed at any time of year as the campground is at 6K above sea level. Also, temperatures at the summit for sunrise and sunset are cold- at any time of year. We wore multiple layers, hats, gloves, and winter coats and still froze up at the summit. The wind was gusting over 30 knots, and the wind chill was in the teens. So, plan ahead! The campground has a covered picnic area, as well as 2 pit toilets with a handwashing sink outside. There are also water spigots in the campground which have potable water. 

One thing we didn’t know is that if you have a reservation for Hosmer Grove you don’t need a reservation for sunrise, because you are already in the park and past the entrance station. It’s still a long drive (around 30 minutes), up to the summit but it’s a bigger head start than most people who are coming from hotels and such farther away. But the rising and setting of the sun shouldn’t be the only thing you hope to experience while in this amazing park. Hiking and backpacking through the crater are spectacular. Some of the most unique and long range views we’ve ever experienced!

There are a few neighborhood markets nearby, gas station, restaurants and a farmer’s market, but the larger grocery stores are located down the mountain in Kahului. There are no eateries or shops, other than the summit gift shop(which offers very limited snacks) in the park so come prepared.

Ok, you twisted my arm...

Hosmer Grove Campground is a small set of primitive sites located in the Kīpahulu region of Haleakalā National Park, at the cloud line. This means it will get cold, especially at night, and even in the summer. Come prepared for this nice break from the Maui beach heat. The spaces are first come first serve, summer will likely be busier so come early. No permit needed. Fairly easy to pack in as well.

There are grills and nice picnic tables available at each site, but no campfires are allowed, so you must use the grills for your cooking. All the better to see the stars at night, right? Portable water is available and there are also put toilets only. Please be respectful of other campers since the area is so small.

Be prepared to be woken early to the sound of an array of birds, and even a clearly lost rooster up before dawn. The best thing about Maui, is that it’s an island formed out of nothing from a volcano, meaning it did not break off from a land mass carrying with it all the variety of animals and insects campers often find troubling. In fact, typical tropical concerns like venomous snakes and large cats are nonexistent here. A very safe place, animal wise, to camp, but do be warned of flash floods when hiking the area and come aware of the conditions and also prepared with a first aid kit, as outside help is far and difficult to reach. Towers were recently put in to assist with calls out, but in the valleys and at high elevations you will often find it hard to get reception. And help us an hour or more away. So hike with caution.

Sites are fairly level, close to each other, and on soft grass. The route to this area via the Hāna Hwy is almost worth the trip in and of itself, it’s truly a gorgeous area at all elevations.

Be sure to take advantage of the many guided hikes (also for safety reasons) offered by the national park and local private companies. We took a GREAT waterfall rappelling trip with Rappel Maui and enjoyed all their info about the area and expertise in rappelling. Be prepared for mosquitos, however we really didn’t encounter too many in June.

Check out the Pools at ‘Ohe’o and the many many waterfalls around the Nat Park as well as the state park while there. And the rocky, rough-waved cost on that side of the island (not great for swimming but so so beautiful).

We camped here the night before going up to the top of Haleakala. For some context, we did a campervan trip round Maui for a week and a half, and this was our third stop after camping in Wanapanapa State Park and then Kipahulu. We spent 2 nights in Kipahulu and then our third at Hosmer Grove, so we really took advantage of the $25 entrance fee that covers 3 nights in Haleakala State Park - I'd recommend definitely checking out both camp sites/sides of Haleakala, as they're both beautiful in their own way! 

Hosmer Grove is just inside the state park lines, and has a large parking lot with approx the same size grassy area. The area is small, but it doesn't seem like it ever gets overcrowded - we shared the campground with about four other groups the night we stayed, and there were only 2 vans camping out. There's pit toilets with sinks, running water and soap to wash up afterwards, as well as a water fountain, picnic tables and grills. 

When people say it's cold up there, it's COLD. Our van was too old to make it up to Hosmer Grove, so we hitchhiked up and brought a 2 person tent for the night. the grassy area to camp on is not completely flat, and unfortunately we chose a spot that was on a bit of an incline and struggled to not slide the whole night - so bewarned to find the right spot to camp on. We were there in June, and by nightfall it got to about 30 degrees (probably dropped even more by midnight). Be prepared with a warm sleeping bag, long sleeves, long pants, socks and maybe a warm hat. The next morning, when we woke up and hitched a ride up to see the sunrise, it was still COLD, and everyone at the top was bundled up - some even wearing winter jackets. 

Also a note: I did a lot of researching ahead of time about the sunrise reservation for Haleakala, since we missed the deadline to get one online. We were pretty worried that we wouldn't be able to see the sunrise since on their website it says that all those who don't have a reservation will be turned away at the top. We ended up getting a ride to the top with a couple who also didn't have a sunrise reservation, and when we got to the top *no one* checked if we had a reservation. We were able to park and watch the sun from the summit. It seems that reservations must be checked at the entrance gate, which is right before Hosmer Grove (some maps seem to make it look like the entrance is after Hosmer, but that's definitely not true. the campground is about a 5 minute drive after you get through the entrance). So a note to the pre-planners: if you don't have a reservation and really want to see that sunrise, camp at Hosmer Grove the night before - as long as you're not trying to enter the park from 3AM-7AM, you'll be fine. Last note on the sunrise - in one of the guidebooks it recommended skipping the summit and going to one of the other lookout points to watch the sunrise where it's way less crowded, and I wished we'd listened. It was overcrowded and noisy, and everyone had their phones out for the hour we were there waiting for the sun to rise. If you want to go a bit off the beaten track, I'd recommend checking out one of those other lookout points. if you don't have a reservation, you'll still need to camp at Hosmer Grove the night before for those, since they're still inside the park's boundaries. And if you're going to camp, might as well hike down into the crater after watching the sunrise!

Any true national park “bucket list” should include a trip to the Haleakala volcano, in Haleakala National Park on the beautiful island of Maui.

And in visiting this beautiful place, you can enhance your experience even greater by camping overnight in the park. Hosmer Grove, located around the 7,000 ft. elevation mark along the road up to Haleakala, is the perfect campground to serve as your base for exploring the area.

Benefits of this campground include the fact that it’s free and offers quick access to the summit of Haleakala (especially for watching the sunrise!), its scenery and birding trail, and the experience of camping so close to a giant volcano in a national park.

The only real downside is that since it requires no reservations or permits, all sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. This means that early arrival is important for acquiring a site, especially during the peak season.

Haleakala was a great highlight of our trip visiting all 59 national parks. We especially enjoyed watching the sunrise from an empty overlook (instead of the crowded summit), backpacking into the crater for a night, and visiting the lush side of the park at Kipahulu.

You can read much more about our two days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Haleakala)