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50 free Haleakala National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Haleakala National Park trivia quiz covers the two very different halves of Maui's national park: the 10,023-foot summit of the great East Maui volcano, with its cinder-cone-studded depression, sunrise crowds and Science City telescopes, and the rainforest coast of Kipahulu with the Oheo pools and Waimoku Falls. Questions cover the geology (why the crater is not really a crater and when the volcano last erupted), the legend of Maui snaring the sun, and the rare life found nowhere else, from the silversword to the nene and the tardigrades of the summit. The history questions take in the 1916 Hawaii National Park, the 1961 split from Hawaii Volcanoes, the Boy Scouts who carried geese into the crater, the 2017 sunrise reservation system, the bike-tour ban and Charles Lindbergh's grave beside the park. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is marked on every question, so it works for a car game on the switchbacks or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia or National Park Service pages and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Hawaii Volcanoes and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Haleakalā National Park is on which Hawaiian island?
Maui
The volcano it is named for makes up more than three-quarters of the island; the West Maui Mountains are the rest.
Q 02What does the name Haleakalā mean in Hawaiian?
House of the sun
In legend the demigod Māui snared the sun from its summit to make the days longer.
Q 03According to legend, why did the demigod Māui lasso the sun from the mountaintop?
To slow it and lengthen the day
His mother Hina complained her bark cloth would not dry in the short days; the sun agreed to long summer days and short winter ones.
Q 04What did Māui use to make the rope with which he snared the sun?
His sister's hair
In one version his blind grandmother helped him after he stole her bananas one by one; the constellation Scorpius is his fishhook.
Q 05How high is the summit of Haleakalā, at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula?
10,023 feet
Puʻu ʻUlaʻula means Red Hill; the volcano may once have topped 12,000 feet before erosion carved its valleys.
Q 06Despite its name, Haleakalā Crater is geologically what?
An erosional valley
It formed when the heads of two big stream valleys ate back into the summit and merged, leaving the Koʻolau and Kaupō gaps on either side.
Q 07Roughly how deep is the summit depression of Haleakalā?
2,600 feet
It is about 7 miles long and 2 miles wide, dotted with cinder cones and crossed by two National Recreation Trails.
Q 08When did Haleakalā most likely last erupt, according to radiocarbon dating published in 1999?
Between 1480 and 1600
It had long been dated to about 1790 from old maps; the flows from that last event form the lava fields at La Perouse Bay in South Maui.
Q 09Haleakalā is officially classed as what kind of volcano?
Dormant
It has erupted ten times in the past 1,000 years and is the only active volcano on Maui, so geologists say it is not extinct, just resting.
Q 10Haleakalā was originally part of a 1916 park that also included which two Big Island volcanoes?
Mauna Loa and Kīlauea
That original Hawaii National Park was split into two separate parks in 1961.
Q 11In which year did Hawaiʻi Volcanoes become a separate park, leaving Haleakalā on its own?
1961
Haleakalā's first superintendent, John Stratton, took office that October; the park has been in the Pacific West Region ever since.
Q 12The park is split into two districts: the summit and which coastal area?
Kīpahulu
You cannot drive between them inside the park; reaching the coast means the long winding road around the windward side of the island.
Q 13The two dozen pools along Palikea Stream in the park's coastal district lie in a gulch called what?
ʻOheʻo
Tourist brochures dubbed them the Seven Sacred Pools; the stream holds rare native freshwater fish.
Q 21The nēnē is thought to have evolved from which mainland bird that reached Hawaii 500,000 years ago?
Canada goose
Its relatives included a giant Hawaiʻi goose more than four times its size; the nēnē's name comes from its soft call.
Q 22Roughly how many nēnē were left in the wild by 1952?
30
Hunting, mongooses, pigs and cats had cut a population of about 25,000 in Captain Cook's day to almost nothing; there were 3,862 by 2022.
Q 23Haleakalā National Park holds more of what than any other US national park?
Endangered species
Feral pigs, goats and deer plus mosquito-borne avian malaria are the main pressures on its unique plants and birds.
Q 14The Pipiwai Trail in the coastal district ends at which 400-foot waterfall?
Waimoku Falls
The trail climbs through a bamboo forest to reach it; swimming is no longer allowed in the park's pools.
Q 15The upper valley above the park's coastal district is closed to the public as a reserve to protect what?
Native rainforest species
Access is limited to researchers and managers; it separates the summit district from the coastal one.
Q 16Which famous aviator is buried at Palapala Hoʻomau Church beside the park's coastal district?
Charles Lindbergh
He built an A-frame there in 1971, sketched his own grave in traditional Hawaiian style, and flew home to die there in August 1974.
Q 17The silversword, or ʻāhinahina, of Haleakalā flowers how many times in its life?
Once, then dies
After perhaps 50 years as a silver ball of leaves it throws up a stalk of up to 600 maroon flower heads, sets seed and dies.
Q 18What does ʻāhinahina, the Hawaiian name for the silversword, literally mean?
Very gray
The silver hairs focus sunlight to warm the growing tip by up to 20 degrees C and shield the plant from wind and frost.
Q 19What nearly wiped out the Haleakalā silversword before it gained protection?
Grazing livestock and souvenir hunters
People in the 1920s uprooted them for fun; the plant has been federally listed as threatened since 1992 and is counted a conservation success.
Q 20Which endangered goose, Hawaii's state bird, did Boy Scouts carry into Haleakalā crater in backpacks in 1946?
Nēnē
The species had died out entirely in the park; by 1952 only about 30 survived anywhere, and it is still the world's rarest goose.
Q 24Biologist Sam Gon III called Haleakalā the richest place on Earth for which tiny creatures?
Tardigrades
He found 31 species of the microscopic water bears surviving in the extreme summit environment in the 1980s.
Q 25The kiwikiu, one of three honeycreepers found only on East Maui, has a population of roughly how many?
200
Attempts to move birds to higher, cooler ground failed as malaria-carrying mosquitoes climbed too; millions of Wolbachia-carrying male mosquitoes are now released weekly to crash the mosquito population.
Q 26In 2023, what technique did the park adopt against the insects spreading avian malaria?
Releasing males carrying Wolbachia bacteria
Eggs from females that mate with the Wolbachia males never hatch; about 10 million had been released by June 2024.
Q 27Which endangered seabird now nests mostly in burrows in Haleakalā crater?
Hawaiian petrel
Cats, mongooses and rats eat the chicks in their burrows, so the park works hard to keep feral animals out.
Q 28Hosmer Grove near the summit road is unusual for a national park because it is a forest of what?
Introduced trees from around the world
Deodar cedar from the Himalaya, Japanese sugi, Australian eucalyptus and North American pines shade out the natives; it has a drive-up campground.
Q 29When the sunrise reservation system began in 2017, which hours needed a permit at the summit?
3 am to 7 am
The system was brought in to control the crowds that jam the summit lots before dawn; sunset needed no permit.
Q 30Why did the Park Service suspend all commercial bicycle tours inside the park in 2007?
Multiple fatal accidents
Operators used to coast riders down all 27 miles from the summit; modified tours now start below the park boundary at about 6,500 feet.