The best advice for a fall visit to the Hawaiian Islands? Park it! Not sit on the beach and watch the waves “park it.” Not a wander the great green gardens kind of “park it.” This kind of “park it” is an invitation to visit the eight, count them - eight - national parks in the State of Hawaii.

To offer a bit of historical perspective, Washington D.C. was declared a national historic site in 1790. Yellowstone became a national park in 1872. The African Burial Ground was named a National Monument in New York in 2006. Over the years, the National Park System has honored, set aside and named hundreds of amazing places; battlefields, islands, lake and seashores, rivers, home sites, monuments, trails and preserves across the country and the Pacific. Hawaii’s first national park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, was founded in 1916.

Fall is the perfect time for a Hawaii park adventure. The days are cooler and the trails less crowded than the busy summer family vacation months. Parks can be reached by air, rental car and mule rides. In Hawaii, the National Park Service has named some of its most unique, accessible parks, honoring pre-recorded-to-modern history.

Hawaii has the only national park with a twenty-plus year continuous molten lava flow. Hawaii’s park sites date to a time long before a voyager named Captain Cook took word of the islands to his western world. Hawaii’s national parks, trails and preserves celebrate the temples, cities and fishponds of ancient peoples. They are adorned with the earliest recorded Pacific history, petroglyphs. They top a 10,000-foot mountain with a crater large enough to hold Manhattan. They honor the human history and inhuman treatment of a people suffering a dreaded disease and celebrate the brave warriors who protected America.

BEGIN ON THE BIG ISLAND
Hawaii’s Big Island has four of the state’s national parks and one National Historic Trail. The parks on this island are drive up and drive in, with easy walking trails, museums, and spectacular sites to see.

Three major parks are located on the Kona side of the Big Island. Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, a place of refuge, is protected by the “great wall” 1,000 feet long, 10 feet high and 17 feet thick, constructed entirely without mortar. Warriors or commoners who arrived there were protected. Trails here are easy to walk. Cultural specialists share legends. Green sea turtles nibble the limu (seaweed) along the rocky shore. They are protected but often “pose” for photos.

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park is the site of Hawaiian settlements. The park’s massive fishponds, built before the arrival of European explorers, are an amazing example of successful aquaculture. The goal of the park restoration is to rehabilitate and restore the fishponds so they will again function, providing fish harvest for the community. Centuries of storm damage have caused movement of stones in the original walls. Richard Boston, manager and archaeologist at the site says, “We have reached a milestone in restoration at this park, even using divers to move and replace underwater stones in their original wall locations.” Petroglyphs at this site include a carving of Captain Cook’s ship.

MANHATTAN ON MAUI
No rumbling can be felt on the island of Maui, but it was a short two centuries ago that the volcano that formed East Maui erupted. At 10,000 feet, Haleakala National Park, the House of the Sun, is the entire top of a dormant volcano. That’s dormant, not extinct, meaning it could become active again. The crater at the top, 3,000 feet deep, 21-miles around, could easily hold Manhattan. Thousand-foot high cinder cones rise from the bottom of the crater. Some life forms here are among the rarest on earth, including the strange silversword plant that grows for 20 years, shoots up a 9-foot high bloom and dies. Here the nene (Hawaiian goose) runs wild, rescued from near extinction.

The most spectacular moment in a day on Haleakala is watching the light of the rising sun spill into the crater. Standing at the observatory railing, it is easy to imagine the demi-god, Maui, throwing a giant rope around the sun to slow it and make Maui days last longer. Across the summit, visitors can watch as the shadow of a 10,023-foot mountain recedes, bringing dawn to the West Maui mountains. The experience is equally as impressive at dusk as the sun goes down.

MOLOKAI MEMORIAL
The Kalaupapa National Historical Park on the island of Molokai contains the site of the Hansen’s Disease settlement where Father Damien de Veuster dedicated his life, ministering to the sufferers of leprosy. More than 8,000 persons in Hawaii were taken away from family and delivered to this remote point of land, separated from the world by thousands of feet of steep cliffs. Damien’s grave and his church, St. Philomena, are the most visited sites. A cure for the disease was found in 1946, but the residents of the colony still live in the tiny community at the base of the world’s tallest sea cliffs.

OAHU HONORS
It’s a fact, Elvis Presley and Hawaii are connected far beyond his famous movie,“Blue Hawaii.” Funds were needed to construct a gracefully arched memorial over the USS Arizona, the final resting place for 1,177 United States military crewmen who lost their lives in the World Ward II attack on December 7, 1941. Elvis volunteered a fundraising concert. The USS Arizona Memorial, built by private contributions, is owned by the U.S. Navy and administered by the National Park Service. It is free, and open to the public, every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days.

Visitors can tour the museum, view a 20-minute documentary on the Pearl Harbor attack and board a Navy shuttle out to the Memorial. Inside, a solemn roster of names carved in marble stretches skyward.

KAUAI FOR WILDLIFE
Kauai, known as the Garden Isle and the most verdant of the islands, offers three National Wildlife Refuge experiences unlike anywhere else in the world. Two of these lush open spaces have rivers running through them, which offer the only kayaking adventures in Hawaii on navigable rivers.

Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, encircled by Hanalei Valley’s dramatic waterfall-draped mountains, is a 917-acre refuge on the north shore established to provide habitat for endangered Hawaiian water birds. Outdoor enthusiasts can take a leisurely kayak journey down the beautiful Hanalei River, one of 14 nationally recognized American Heritage Designated Rivers by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which offers impressive views of the islands flora, fauna, and natural landscape, including famous Bali Hai (Makana Peak).

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