The road at Kaena Point State Park has been closed for nearly eight weeks due to rainy weather and the muddy damage caused by off-road vehicles.

But the locked gate at the Mokuleia section of the park likely will reopen this weekend if dry conditions persist, state Department of Land and Natural Resources officials said Tuesday.

The closure is a first for the park since a gate and permit system was established there in December 2014.

“It’s been a really wet spring,” Division of State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell said. “Unfortunately, there are still some knuckleheads who habitually ignore our instructions and drive recklessly out there. They still view it as a four-wheel-drive playground.”

Cottrell said off-roaders have been carving new roads, smashing vegetation and engaging in mud-bogging — the act of crossing deep pools of muddy water. The result is damage to both land and ocean, with scarring, erosion and mud flowing into nearshore waters.

DLNR Chairwoman Suzanne Case said the department is adopting a zero-tolerance attitude toward anyone caught violating the park’s rules.

State law gives the department the authority to deny, cancel or terminate permits of any driver who violates the conditions of their permit. Among other things, those conditions prohibit damaging natural resources and straying off designated trails and roads managed for motorized use.

Drivers convicted of driving where they shouldn’t or of causing damage can have their vehicles confiscated and/or be required to restore any damage they cause. Fines can go as high as $2,500 per violation.

Nearly 8,800 people have received a free permit since the introduction of a system that allows drivers with permitted vehicles to enter the park through a locked gate, officials said

The system was introduced following years of uncontrolled off-road vehicle use and related problems detrimental to the park’s natural and cultural resources. The system allowed state officials to get a better handle on who is in the park at any given time and to better educate vehicle operators about where they can and can’t go.

Cottrell said parks staff and volunteers have put in a lot of work marking specific unimproved roads in the park where driving is allowed for access to fishing spots and to the Natural Area Reserve at the end of the 2.7-mile dirt road.

But it seems those signs are often ignored, he said. In some areas it’s hard to tell where the designated roads and the illegal off-road tracks begin and end.

The devastation is even worse when the ground is saturated with rain. A scarred landscape is left behind with torn-up vegetation unable to prevent erosion, and craters that fill up quickly with muddy water that often flows into the ocean, killing coral reefs and wreaking havoc with other marine creatures, officials said.

Officials said they’ve tried to block off some especially large mud puddles, but off-roaders still find a way to access them for mud-bogging.

“This area just needs a break,” said Jamie Raduenzel, Kaena Point outreach and education specialist. “It just needs a break from that kind of abuse.”

Raduenzel said fishermen have told her they agree with the temporary road closure to help give the nearshore waters a respite.

When the park road was shut off in mid-February, the Parks Division informed permit holders through email. The information also was listed on the division’s website.

Cottrell said the agency has received surprisingly few complaints about the closure, although someone did vandalize the gate and dislodge the closure sign last weekend.

The closure affects only vehicles. Hikers do not need a permit and are still allowed into the park.

Kaena Point is home to Laysan albatrosses, Hawaiian monk seals and rare and endangered plants. The state park, with sections on both sides of the remote point, features a volcanic coast with tide pools and small natural stone arches.