Park Closed

One of the things Dane & I did today was jury-rig a "Park Closed" sign. We repurposed the A-frame signboard that the magnetic forest scene for the native birds was on, using blue tape to spell out the words. We placed it at the entrance at the edge of the asphalt, out of the travel lane but far enough out so it could be seen by tourists before they turned in to the park road. Incoming traffic did diminish, but it did not totally cause all tourists to turn away. Many people driving in would get out of their car & walk up to us to tell us they only had a couple more days of their vacation left, sort of like it was a magic phrase that would make the active fires disappear. 😕

We added the orange cones to draw attention to the sign.

I had arrived at Lapakahi State Historical Park this morning just before 8 am; I passed one of the tanker trucks that was just leaving. The tanker returned a short while later after having refilled its tank. Dane arrived about 15 minutes later; he brought breakfast for the both of us & poi donuts for the firefighters. After breakfast, I walked the park trails, documenting the extent of the burn & the damage done. This diagram uses the map from the Lapakahi brochure as its base so it does not show the entire park, only that portion where the trail is. You can see how the road & the trails helped hinder the spread of the fire.

When I got back to the parking lot, I debriefed with Dane on the extent of the damaged area. I let him know that most of the burn was restricted to the north side of the middle trail & Papa's Hale was not affected. The numbers referred to in the photos indicate points of interest on the trail map.

Area by culvert under Akoni Pule Hwy where fire appears to have started.

From culvert under Akoni Pule Hwy, aka Hwy 270, looking southerly.

From culvert, looking westerly.

From gate, looking southerly. Compare with yesterday's photo of this same area.

From gate, looking westerly.

Going down hill, towards visitor center. Compare to photo on 02/11/2024.

Shrub easterly of visitor center appears to be worst damage immediately adjacent to building.

Panorama from MLCD sign, looking westerly to easterly.

Panorama from “Trail/Road” sign, looking westerly to easterly.

A kiawe tree burnt by the fire has collapsed across the service road. It is still smoldering.

Panorama from near #18, looking northerly to southerly.

Panorama from near #15, looking easterly to westerly.

Panorama from near #11, looking northerly to southerly.

Panorama from near #5, looking northerly to southerly.

Ash on floor of visitor center. Ash has also settled on other surfaces.

While Dane & I were talking I noticed a couple of tourists walking in to the parking lot & heading for the trailhead. Dane got out to talk to them; they thought even though the gate was closed it was okay for them to park there & walk down. We were both amazed by their arrogance at thinking the closed gate did not apply to them. We moved our vehicles up to the gate to stop tourists from going around the gate. And also to monitor it and let the firefighters in & out as needed.

Later I sent an incident report to Luisa (about the fire, not the tourists); I tried to attach the photos but the file was too large. I ended up downloading the photo pages to a zip drive to give to Dane tomorrow so he can take it back to the office & download it for Luisa. The map showing the approximate burn area & the photos are from the incident report that I submitted.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Glenda, Leah, & Heather!