Pipiwai Trail Parking

Where do you park for the Pīpīwai Trail?

At the Kīpahulu Visitor Center, which is the only parking in the district. Coming south from Hāna you cross the bridge over ʻOheʻo Gulch and turn in on the ocean side. One lot serves both trails here, Pīpīwai Trail and the Kūloa Point Trail, which is why it can look busier than the trail feels once you are on it.

It is a small lot with marked stalls and a couple of accessible spaces near the visitor center. There is no overflow area and no shuttle. Do not leave a car on the highway shoulder, which is narrow enough that a parked car is a genuine hazard on a blind curve.

Is parking free at the Pīpīwai Trail?

Yes, once you have paid to enter the park. There is no separate parking charge. The $30 private vehicle pass is good for 3 days and covers Summit and Kīpahulu, so if you paid at the summit two days ago, you have already paid for this.

Pay by card. Credit or debit at the entrance or a self-pay machine. Cash is not accepted anywhere in the park, and the self-pay machine at Kīpahulu does not care that you have exact change in twenties. An America the Beautiful pass works. So does the $55 Hawaiʻi Tri-Park annual, which pays for itself on the second visit.

What time should I get to the lot?

By 1pm. That leaves the full 2.5 to 3.5 hours on the trail, twenty minutes at Kūloa Point to see the pools, and the drive back toward Hāna in daylight, which matters more than people expect on a road with no lighting and no shoulder.

The two clocks are different and both matter. The visitor center is staffed 9am to 5pm, staffing permitting, so a ranger, a map, and a working restroom are a 9 to 5 proposition. The gate on the lot closes around 5pm. The trail itself has no posted closing time, which sounds generous right up until your car is on the wrong side of a closed gate.

Mornings are the better hike anyway. The lot is quietest before 10am and the rain in Kīpahulu tends to come in the afternoon.

What do I do if the lot is full?

Wait. Turnover here is faster than at most trailheads because nearly everyone is on the same two and a half to three and a half hour clock, so a spot usually opens within fifteen or twenty minutes. Pull in, park considerately at the edge if a marked stall is not free, and give it a few minutes rather than driving off.

If you would rather not sit there, walk the Kūloa Point Trail first. It is 0.5 miles round trip to the coast and the Pools of ʻOheʻo, takes half an hour, and by the time you are back the midday group has usually cleared out.

What is at the trailhead, and what is not?

At the lot: restrooms, picnic tables, an information board, and a visitor center with a ranger in it during the day. Use the restroom before you start. It is the last one.

On the trail: nothing. No toilets in four miles. No benches anywhere, which is the single most useful thing to know if you are hiking with someone who needs to sit down periodically, because the honest answer is a rock or a root. No trash cans, so what you carry in comes back out with you.

And no drinking water, at the lot or on the trail or anywhere in the district. This one catches people out. Carry two liters per person. The streams look clean and they are not, leptospirosis is present in fresh water here and it gets in through cuts and eyes as readily as through your mouth.

Can I leave a dog in the car?

No, and there is nowhere shaded to try. The lot is open to the sky, the temperature in a parked car in Kīpahulu climbs fast, and you will be gone three hours.

It is also moot. Pets are prohibited on every trail in the park, including this one, so a dog in the car has no version of this day that works. Leave them at the accommodation or pick a different hike.

Where does the trail actually start?

Across the road from the lot, not behind the visitor center. Look for the sign on the mauka side of the highway. Cross carefully, cars come around that bend faster than they should.

A few hundred feet in, the path splits beside a reconstructed Hawaiian meeting house. Go left for Pīpīwai. Right is the Kūloa Point Trail, which drops half a mile to the coast and the Pools of ʻOheʻo. People take the wrong fork here every day and figure it out when the trail starts heading downhill toward the ocean. Left for the waterfalls and the bamboo, right for the coast. If the ground under you starts dropping toward the ocean, you took the wrong one.

Questions

Where do you park for the Pīpīwai Trail?

At the Kīpahulu Visitor Center lot on the ocean side of the highway, just past the ʻOheʻo Gulch bridge. The trailhead is directly across the road.

Is parking free at the Pīpīwai Trail?

Yes. There is no parking charge on top of the $30 vehicle entrance fee, which is good for 3 days and covers Summit and Kīpahulu.

What time does the Pīpīwai Trail parking lot close?

The gate closes around 5pm. The visitor center is staffed 9am to 5pm, staffing permitting. AllTrails also lists the lot closing at 5 PM.

Are there restrooms at the Pīpīwai Trail?

At the trailhead only. There are restrooms and picnic tables at the visitor center lot and nothing at all on the four mile trail.

Is there drinking water at the Pīpīwai Trail?

No. There is no potable water anywhere in the Kīpahulu District. Bring two liters per person and do not drink from the streams.

Can I bring my dog to the Pīpīwai Trail?

No. Pets are prohibited on park trails, and there is no shade in the lot to leave one in a car.