Public Access Trails Hawai’i (PATH) filed suit in January to force the State to take control of the Haleakala Trail and reopen it.  According to PATH:

Haleakala Trail, which runs from the top of Olinda to the Haleakala crater rim across lands owned by Haleakala Ranch and the National Park. The trail was the Hawaiian’s traditional path into the crater, and was later adopted by westerners. In fact, before the opening of the Haleakala highway, thousands of tourists and other adventure seekers, including Mark Twain, reached the top of the crater via Haleakala Trail. In the early 1900s, the Territory of Hawaii budgeted and expended government funds to survey and improve the trail. Based on this and other information, the state’s own abstractors and attorneys have over the years written a number of internal opinions concluding that Haleakala Trail is a public trail that is owned by the state.  Read more

The state is asking the 2nd Circuit Court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that PATH lacks standing to force the state to claim ownership of the trail.