The "Mauna Loa Strip" connects the "main" part of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park at the summit of Kilauea with the upper elevations of Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa Strip Road climbs through the lower and middle sections of the Strip from 4000-6700 feet elevation, and above that Mauna Loa Trail continues to "Red Hill" cabin on the East rift zone, and then to the summit of Mauna Loa.

Unfortunately much of the Strip was formerly used for cattle and horse pasture, or infested with feral goats and sheep, and is still degraded habitat infested with pasture grasses and weeds. The Strip is important habitat for many rare native plants and animals, so in recent decades the park has been trying to restore the Strip's habitats. Kipuka Puaulu in particular was once used as an arboretum at the same time it was a horse pasture, and later became protected and reincarnated as "bird park". Restoration efforts are ongoing, and the understory is slowly becoming more natural. Nearby Kipuka Ki is also being restored, and stocked with a variety of native plants and trees. Much of the areas above Kipuka Puaulu and Kipuka Ki were heavily grazed, and consist of a mix of scrub forests and koa forests with pasture grass understory. The last kipuka is at the end of Strip Road, beyond which is increasingly sparse scrub forest and lava fields, until recently degraded by Mauna Loa's feral sheep and goats.