Do You Need GPS to Hike in Hawaii?

Maybe you've never been hiking before in Hawaii, or perhaps you're tackling a trail for which the latest USGS topo map dates from the 1970s. If so, you might be wondering if a GPS device or smartphone could help you out. On faint footpaths over lava fields marked only by ahu (cairns) or into valleys usually only visited by pig hunters, could GPS save you from getting dangerously lost?

Let's cut to the chase: to hike the most popular, easily accessible trails on the main Hawaiian Islands, you don't need GPS. (In fact, you might not even need hiking boots - but the 'rubbah slippah' debate is a subject for another post!) Just pay attention to roadside mile markers to find the trailhead, then follow the all-ages crowd ambling into the ferny forest for a waterfall swim.

Trails managed by the state-wide Na Ala Hele: Hawaii Trails System & Access program are often marked with signs not just at the trailhead, but at key junctions along the way. It'd be difficult to get lost, given how well-trod many trails in Hawaii are. In quite a few places, your smartphone or GPS device won't work anyway, making the point moot.

When I was researching my book Top Trails Maui: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone, I carried a handheld GPS device on every hike. I found it useful for pinpointing exactly where remote or badly signposted trailheads are. I also found it helpful for navigating little-traveled trails, for example, the Kaupo and Skyline Trails [PDF] on the backsides of Haleakala volcano. Both of those trails end in places that feel eerily like the middle of nowhere (respectively, Kaupo town off the remote Piilani Hwy and Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area). It also helped to know how far I'd already hiked and what elevation I was at, to keep from being misled by confusing trails-of-use. Being at such a high elevation on these trails also ensured that the GPS reception remained strong and clear enough. 

I'd used a GPS device before on the summit trail up Mauna Kea, Hawaii's highest peak, and when trekking across lava flows and cinder deserts inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, both on the Big Island. On Kauai, GPS prevented me from getting lost on a network of trails inside Kokee and Waimea Canyon State Parks. On Oahu, GPS was essential for trekking overgrown trails to summits in the Koolau Mountains above Honolulu (at that time, Na Ala Hele didn't post Oahu trail maintenance updates on Facebook like they do now).

Overall, on 90% of hiking trails in Hawaii, you don't really need GPS. It'll be just another electronic device weighing down your pockets. But if you're planning on doing any wilderness hiking, GPS might be your next best hiking friend in the islands.

Do you hike in Hawaii with or without a GPS? Which smartphone apps do you find most useful for hiking? Let us know by posting a comment below.

Related links:
Maui's Best Walks for Wildlife Watching
How Not to Hike on Maui and in Iao Valley
Big Island's Volcanoes & Valleys - My CNN Story

Photo credits: West Maui Mountains, Haleakala National Park & Kihei (Sara Benson & Michael Connolly Jr.)

Maui's Best Walks for Wildlife Watching

Some tourists visit Hawaii just for the scenery: think sunsets on the beach, towering volcanoes and rain forest waterfalls. But if you take a closer look at the landscape on foot, you'll be amazed by the biodiverse wildlife living on these Polynesian islands. Hawaii's flora and fauna spectacularly show off the same evolutionary principles that naturalist Charles Darwin famously found in South America's Galapagos Islands.

Evolving in isolation, a single kind of honeycreeper that arrived in Hawaii centuries ago eventually became dozens of new species, each better adapted to its new island home. Today few places in the world offer such a variety of biomes and wildlife as do the Hawaiian Islands - and there's no better way to see it all than by hiking.

On Maui, Haleakala National Park is has many of the island's top trails for wildlife watching. To spot a rainbow variety of bird life, start with the short loop around Hosmer Grove or sign up for a longer guided hike into Haleakala's wet, wild Waikamoi Cloud Forest, managed by the Nature Conservancy. Day hikes and overnight treks around the park's volcanic summit will bring you almost nose-to-beak with nēnē, the endangered Hawaiian goose. 

Back along the central Maui coast, Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge has built a boardwalk that lets you spy on not just rare native and migratory Pacific birds, but also sea turtles basking down below on golden sands. In West Maui, the Kapalua Resort's hiking trails are open to the public. Explore the shady Maunalei Arboretum of native and exotic trees, then trace the coastline of Kapalua Bay, where humpback whales swim and give birth in the warm offshore waters in winter. 

You can find out more about all of these hikes in my book Top Trails Maui: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone, available in print from Wilderness Press and as an Amazon Kindle ebook. 

Related links:
Slow Down, Save an Endangered Nene on Maui
Hidden Hiking Trails in West Maui
The Best Hike on Maui Is...

Photo credits: Haleakala National Park, Kihei & Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge (Sara J. Benson & Michael Connolly Jr.)

How Not to Hike on Maui & in the Iao Valley

Every week on Maui, 911 dispatch operators get a phone call from a lost, stranded or injured hiker. On a tropical island that seems so small and innocuous, hundreds of tourists every year are tempted to hike off-trail, maybe to reach that hidden waterfall, to see that next beach or recently, to find a back door into the Iao Valley.

In central Maui, Iao Valley State Monument is where you'll find that iconic postcard shot of the Iao Needle, a jungley spire covered in thick vegetation that shoots up skyward. The paved walking trails that lead around the park, past an ethnobotanical garden and a freshwater stream, are so tame that I wondered if I could even classify them as hikes in my book Top Trails Maui.

So it's not surprising that some hikers - typically young men between the ages of 18 and 35 years old - would try pioneering another way to explore the valley on foot. Usually I see tourists start hiking beyond the "No Trespassing" signs to ascend the needle itself, an attempt that's foolhardy given the chance of flash floods, crumbling mountainsides and no maintained trails.

Over on Maui Now, Vanessa Wolf has written a hilarious guide about what not to do while hiking on Maui, including how trying to hike from Olowalu to Iao Valley can kill you. Her tongue-in-cheek advice ("Water is for cowards" and "By all means, wear inappropriate footwear") is a fantastic anti-checklist that you can use to prepare yourself for your first hike in Hawaii's wetland forests and lush stream-fed valleys.

As Wolf points out, Maui EMS will "thank you in advance for not getting airlifted." Besides, isn't calling search-and-rescue embarrassing when the situation is pretty much your own fault?

Related links:
Dear Would-Be Olowalu to Iao Hiker
Men Attempting Olowalu to Iao Hike Rescued
Our National Parks: So Wild That You Should Sue?

Photo credit: Iao Valley State Monument (Sara J. Benson)

Slow Down, Save an Endangered Nene on Maui

From December through April is nesting season for nēnē, the endangered Hawaiian goose. At Haleakala National Park, these birds are often seen along the roadsides and in parking lots, where careless drivers sometimes hit or run over them. The remarkably curious birds have little fear of humans, and they aren't able to fly away quickly.

Just a few days ago, a motorist rushing up the highway to catch the sunrise from Haleakala's volcanic summit fatally struck a breeding pair of nēnē. Unfortunately, in 2012 there has already been a greater than average number of nēnē who have died after being hit by motor vehicles.

So how can you help? It's easy: just slow down and obey the posted speed limits in the park. Drive even more carefully during rainy or foggy weather, when visibility is limited. Check around your parked car before backing up, to avoid any birds that may be hanging out underneath your vehicle.

Related links:
Hawaii's National Parks Go Social: News for Hikers
Haleakala's Summit Wilderness: High Winds & Other Fascinatingly Dangerous Weather
The Best Hike on Maui Is...

Photo credits: Haleakala National Park (Michael Connolly Jr.)

Hawaii's National Parks Free This Weekend

In honor of Veterans Day, US national parks are waiving entry fees November 10-12. That's right: visiting any national park is free, including in Hawaii. If you're headed to Haleakala National Park on Maui or Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, you won't pay a cent. Go hike the otherworldly craters of the Big Island's Kilauea Iki Trail inside an active volcanic zone, or traipse through musical bamboo groves up to Waimoku Falls on the Pipiwai Trail beyond Hana on Maui. You'll save $10 per carload all weekend long.

Related links:
The Best Trail on Maui Is...
Big Island's Volcanoes and Valleys - My CNN Story
Haleakala's Summit Wilderness: High Winds & Other Fascinatingly Dangerous Weather

Photo credit: Haleakala National Park (Sara J. Benson)

Big Island's Volcanoes and Valleys - My CNN Story

In six months of living on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, I learned to do things that even growing up in a Midwestern farm town hadn't taught me. I hauled my own trash to the dump in the back of a sputtering 1980s Volvo. I paid for water delivery when our rainwater catchment system bottomed out. I stole eggs from the backyard chickens and picked ripe, soft papaya fruit right off the plant. The Big Island brought me as close to the hippie dream of living off the land as I'm likely to get.

Kilauea Iki Overlook

But what I remember most about the Big Island is its raw, lunar-looking lava landscapes. I hiked across sun-baked lava fields in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park - and almost succumbed to heat exhaustion after my water ran out, frantically finding some last-ditch relief in the shadow of an ancient Hawaiian rock wall. After dark, I scampered across ropy pahoehoe lava to a viewpoint of fiery molten lava glowing hellishly red while it oozed downhill into the ocean, sending up billowing clouds of steam. As dawn broke, I drove partway up Mauna Kea's summit road, then continued to climb steeply uphill on foot, curving around rainbow-colored cinder cones and a prehistoric, frosty green lake at eye level with the clouds. Out of breath, I reached the top of Hawaii's highest volcano, dusted with snow and marked with a cold metal USGS elevation marker and a traditional stone-and-wood Hawaiian altar.

After all of that fire and ice, the Big Island's lush amphitheater valleys were a refreshingly wet and temperate escape, where waterfalls leapt over cliffs and swollen streams ran headstrong into the Pacific. I tramped from Waipiʻo Valley up the Z-shaped switchbacks of the Muliwai Trail, then rock-hopped over streams, strode past emergency helipads and slipped over kukui nuts for the final mile downhill with nothing to hold onto but tangled hau trees. The rough trail ended in abandoned Waimanu Valley, where under the light of a full moon by a rising tide, I camped alone on an eerily deserted beach. It was too easy to hallucinate the sounds of Hawaii's night marchers - the ghosts of ancient warriors - pounding their feet on dirt and making tree branches creak and rocks crash as they slipped through the forest.

View from Mauna Kea's Summit Road

Getting to know the Big Island's volcanic landscapes and timeless valleys in depth requires taking serious risks, but it pays off with huge rewards. If this sounds like your kind of adventure, check out my guide to "Exploring the Big Island's Volcanoes and Valleys," published by Lonely Planet. It was recently reprinted by CNN with a gorgeous gallery of digital images, so you can see for yourself the drama that unfolds on Hawaii's youngest - and most wildly unpredictable - island.

Have you been hiking on the Big Island? What's your favorite trail? Are you a volcano trekker or a valley explorer? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Related links:
Volcanoes and Valleys on the Big Island [CNN]
Exploring the Big Island's Volcanoes and Valleys [Lonely Planet]
Kauaiʻs Coast & Mountains: A Hiker's Dream [Lonely Planet]

Photo credits: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, Waipiʻo Valley, and Mauna Kea (Michael Connolly Jr.)

Maui Video: Hiking Trail Clips

Over on the independent travel website Matador Network, Ian MacKenzie just published a high-definition travel montage video of a recent trip to Maui. The video is worth watching in its entirety, but island hikers will be especially excited to see shots from the summit of the Waihee Ridge Trail (for once, without cloudy conditions obscuring the view!) and the Pipiwai Trail inside Haleakala National Park that leads through a bamboo forest to Waimoku Falls. You can find out more about both of these hikes in my book, Top Trails Maui: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone, available in print from Wilderness Press and as a Kindle ebook.

Related links:
Matador Network: Maui Paradise Dubstep [VIDEO]
The Best Hike on Maui Is...
Hidden Hiking Trails in West Maui

Photo credit: Haleakala National Park (Sara J. Benson)