National indigenous tourism
Bruce — AIANTA
American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association. Reviewing the cultural-restraint framing of the preview overall.
How this site was made
Methodology, sources, and what we chose not to map.
This site is a public preview, built from public-record sources and not yet reviewed by the named partners. Everything below describes how it came together, what it draws on, and the consultation that still has to happen for it to speak with the right voices.
Our posture
Four commitments.
- Public-record sources only. Every layer cites NPS, NOAA, USGS, state of Hawaiʻi GIS, or peer-reviewed academic work.
- Descriptive, not advocacy. Where the trail crosses Hawaiian Kingdom Crown Lands, we show the documented boundary and cite the documented history (Kameʻeleihiwa, Osorio). We do not litigate sovereignty.
- Restraint, on purpose. We deliberately omit sacred-site locations NPS has chosen not to publish. More layers is not more respect.
- This is a preview, not a final word. The cultural and historical writing is unreviewed scaffolding. We invite correction from the named reviewers and the broader Native Hawaiian community, and we will change what we get wrong.
Reviewers we propose to consult
Before this site flips to a public companion.
None of the people or organizations below have been consulted on this preview yet. Naming them is a commitment to the consultation pass we'd do before any public launch — not a claim of endorsement.
Hawaiian tourism standards
NaHHA
Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. Reviewing voice, Hawaiian-language usage, and what's appropriate for a non-Hawaiian publisher to surface.
Hawaiian historian (TBD via NaHHA)
Academic reviewer
Reviewing the Crown Lands and 1893 / ceded-lands content in the Kealakekua chapter for accuracy and framing.
NPS
Arik — Superintendent, Ala Kahakai NHT
Operational and cultural review per NPS Pacific Islands standards. Final sign-off for any public launch.
What we don't map
Restraint as a feature.
The following are deliberately absent — not because we couldn't find them, but because mapping them would either compromise protection or extend beyond what public agencies have chosen to publish.
- Sacred sites NPS has chosen not to publish — burial caves, kūpuna iwi locations, fishing kapu zones, certain heiau on private land
- Community-sourced locations not yet published by NPS or DLNR
- Active archaeological excavation locations
- Endangered species nest specifics beyond what NOAA and USFWS publish
Sources — data layers
Every map layer, attributed.
| Layer | Source | License / status |
|---|---|---|
| Ala Kahakai trail corridor | NPS — Ala Kahakai NHT Official Corridor FeatureServer | Public domain (US Gov) |
| Ahupuaʻa boundaries | State of Hawaiʻi DLNR via Hawaii Geoportal | Public domain |
| NPS unit boundaries (4) | NPS Land Resources Division FeatureServer (KAHO, PUHE, PUHO, ALKA) | Public domain |
| Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale NMS | NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries shapefile | Public domain |
| Historic lava flows (1801 / 1859 / 1881 / 1950) | USGS Open-File Report 2007-1089 (Sherrod et al., Geologic Map of the State of Hawaiʻi) | Public domain. 2022 Mauna Loa NE flow pending separate digitization. |
| Crown Lands (Kealakekua stub) | Compiled from State of Hawaiʻi ceded-lands inventory + Kameʻeleihiwa 1992 Appendix A | Stub. Full inventory pending historian consult. |
| Humpback density (Dec–Apr) | Hand-curated polygon approximating NOAA Pacific Islands Region published high-density zones | Compilation. Replace with CetMap-derived contour in a future phase. |
| Honu (green sea turtle) nesting / basking | NOAA PIFSC + DLNR DOFAW (beach-center precision per NOAA practice) | Compilation |
| Hawaiian monk seal haul-outs | NOAA PIFSC main HI monk seal sighting database (general zones only) | Compilation |
| Reef extent | OpenStreetMap natural=reef via Overpass (NOAA CoRIS shapefile URL deprecated) | ODbL — © OpenStreetMap contributors |
| Sea-level rise (1 / 3 / 6 ft) | Stub coastal-exposure polygons. UH SOEST PacIOOS WFS unreachable at fetch time. | Stub. Replace with PacIOOS-derived polygons in a future phase. |
| Chapter points (17 sites) | Curated from NPS published pages, DLNR State Inventory of Historic Places, USGS HVO publications | Original compilation. No community-sourced or unattributed sites. |
Sources — photography
All photos public agency or Wikimedia.
| Photo | Source | License (per Wikimedia) |
|---|---|---|
| Hero — Mauna Kea / Mauna Loa / Hualālai letterbox | Wikimedia · Travis Thurston | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
| Chapter 1 — Moʻokini Heiau panorama | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 2 — Puʻukoholā Heiau NHS sign | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 3 — Hualālai from southeast | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 4 — Honokōhau Hālau | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 5 — Kealakekua Bay morning | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 6 — Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 7 — Mauna Loa from the air | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Chapter 8 — Horses at South Point | Wikimedia | See file page |
| Methodology / Reading the Land — petroglyphs, lava, wall | See /img/ATTRIBUTION.md | See file pages |
| Header — official Ala Kahakai NHT trail shield | NPS official sign artwork (user-supplied) | Public domain (US Gov) |
Voice and language
How we write about Hawaiʻi.
We use Hawaiian terms throughout this site — ahupuaʻa, mauka/makai, ali'i, heiau, honu — because the English equivalents flatten meaning. Diacritics (ʻokina and kahakō) are used per the modern Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui and Elbert) and the conventions of Hawaiian Language Online (Ulukau).
We describe Native Hawaiians (Kānaka Maoli) as indigenous to Hawaiʻi. The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was a sovereign nation recognized by the US, UK, France, and many others before 1893; that history is documented, not contested, and we treat it accordingly.
Found something we got wrong?
Tell us.
aloha@alakahakai.org forwards to the team. We respond to every email. Cultural-content corrections from Kānaka Maoli readers get priority and the relevant copy gets pulled into review immediately.
For a deeper look at the trail itself, the Reading the Land companion walks through what trail surface, stones, and petroglyphs tell us.
Live data & imagery · added September 2026
What the conditions and 360° pages draw on.
- Weather and alerts: NWS Honolulu gridpoint forecasts, active alerts by point and marine zone, and the Surf Zone and Coastal Waters text products, via api.weather.gov.
- Tides: NOAA CO-OPS predictions (MLLW) at Māhukona, Kawaihae, Kailua-Kona, Nāpōʻopoʻo and Honuʻapo. Predictions, not observations; the nearest station can be miles from a chapter's shore.
- Ocean: NDBC buoy 51004 observations; Open-Meteo's WW3-based marine model for swell just offshore of each chapter.
- Volcanoes and earthquakes: USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory alert levels and daily updates (HANS API); USGS earthquake catalog, M2.5+ within 150 km.
- Parks: NPS API alerts for the Ala Kahakai, Puʻukoholā Heiau, Kaloko-Honokōhau, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes.
- Storms and air: NHC/CPHC active-storm feed; Open-Meteo air quality (CAMS) for SO₂ and PM2.5 as a vog proxy. The State's monitors remain the authority.
- 360° imagery: Google Street View and contributed photospheres, embedded from Google Maps and credited per card. They demonstrate the experience; no trail-owned capture exists yet for the corridor between the parks.
- Photography: National Park Service photographs (public domain, credited "NPS") and Wikimedia Commons images listed in the attribution file.
Every feed is fetched by a server script every ten minutes into one JSON file; when a source fails, the last good reading is kept and the page timestamp says so. Nothing here should be used in place of official warnings.