A quarter mile above the park entrance, opposite the driveway to the
inn, a paved lane, one-half mile long, leads to the Hosmer Grove
Campground and Picnic Area. It has a shelter for rainy weather that
contains two tables and two charcoal burners. Four additional tables
with adjacent charcoal burners are in an open site below the road.
Running water, parking space for eight cars, and sites for pitching
tents are provided. Charcoal may be purchased at the inn. A self-guiding
nature trail leads through the grove.
[Illustration: HOSMER GROVE
CAMPGROUND AND PICNIC AREA]
The grove was named for the first Territorial forester, Dr. Ralph S.
Hosmer, who experimented with planting temperate trees at high altitudes
on Haleakala and Mauna Kea. Trees, planted here in 1910, include the
deodar, _Cedrus deodara_ from the Himalayas; the tsugi, _Cryptomeria
japonica_ from Japan; eucalypti from Australia; and from the mainland a
cypress, _Cupressus arizonica_; a juniper, _Juniperus virginiana_;
Douglas fir, _Pseudotsuga taxifolia_; incense cedar, _Libocedrus
decurrens_; two spruces, _Picea canadensis_, _P. excelsa_; and seven
pines: lodgepole, _Pinus contorta_, Coulter or big-cone, _P. coulteri_,
Jeffrey, _P. jeffreyi_, longleaf, _P. palustris_, ponderosa or western
yellow, _P. ponderosa_, white, _P. strobus_, and Scotch, _P.
sylvestris_. Many of these have survived and have borne fruits. The huge
keeled cones of Coulter pines are cherished as ornaments in some homes.
Native plants associated with the area are the shrubs: Haleakala
sandalwood, mamane, pukiawe, aalii, mountain pilo, ohelo, silver
geranium, kupaoa; two or three ferns; two sedges; and three native
grasses.
Two thirds of the distance to the grove, the crater trail from the inn
starts up the mountain to the left. This is a connecting link, 1¾ miles
long, to the Halemauu Trail which it joins a half mile below its start
on the highway. _See Numbered Points of Interest, No. 9._