Kīpahulu · MM 42 · Rt 31
Pipiwai Trail: the best four miles on the route.
A bamboo cathedral, a banyan the size of a rumor, and a 400-foot finale. Bring real shoes.
- Marker
- MM 42 · Rt 31 (Kīpahulu)
- Distance
- 4 mi round trip
- Fee
- NP $30/car · card only
- Time
- 2–3 hrs
- Trail
- Muddy after rain — often
Listen to this guide
Where the bamboo forest actually is
Let’s settle the internet’s favorite confusion: THE bamboo forest — the one from every reel — lives on the Pipiwai Trail, inside Haleakalā National Park’s Kīpahulu District, past Hana at marker 42 on Rt 31. It is not a secret roadside stop. It’s a real hike inside a real national park, and your $30 vehicle pass covers it.
What the four miles buy you
The trail climbs past the Makahiku Falls overlook, ducks under a banyan tree that has clearly been eating well for a century, and then — the part you came for — enters the bamboo. A boardwalk runs through thousands of culms clacking overhead like the island applauding you personally.
It ends at Waimoku Falls: 400 feet of water down a sheer lava wall. Admire it from a respectful distance — rockfall is real — then walk back grinning.
Fees, timing, and mud
The $30-per-car park pass is card-only at the gate and good for three days at BOTH districts — hike bamboo today, drive Haleakalā’s summit tomorrow, same receipt. Go before 10am or after 2pm to dodge the midday rush. And about the mud: it’s not a maybe. This is rainforest. Real shoes, not resort sandals.
Keep planning
- All 16 stops in order →
- The timed 1-day plan →
- ʻOheʻo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) →
- Waiʻanapanapa Black Sand Beach →
- Guide: Hikes →
Written and shot on the route by Shane Perry, Maui resident.
Read this part twice
- Stay on the boardwalk in the bamboo — it exists because the forest floor doesn’t want you on it.
- Waimoku Falls drops rock. Admire from the viewing area, not the splash zone.
- Flash floods cross this trail’s streams. Rising or brown water = turn around, every time.
Straight answers
Take this stop with you.
The Glovebox Copy has every stop, marker, and fee — printable, signal-proof, free.