Haleakala on Maui

I guess I should have said that Haleakala (pronounced Ha-lay-a-ka-la) IS Maui and not is on Maui. Haleakala is Hawaiian for "house of the sun". There are two volcanoes that make up the island of Maui and Haleakala is the biggest of the two. As you can see by the elevation sign above, Haleakala goes way up into the sky! So much so that they tell you that if you are going to scuba dive you have to wait 24 hours after you have been to the top of the volcano so that you don't increase your chances of getting the dreaded bends.

Going to the top of the dormant volcano is a treat. Just the drive up there is full of fantastic views but when you get to the top, what a view! You can see for miles and you can just about see the whole island of Maui from the top. Because it is above the clouds and the sky is so clear, there is an observatory at the top of Haleakala as you can see in this photo.

The volcano is a very interesting place to visit. Once at the top you can hike around and see the different parts of the landscape, wave at the tourists flying by in helicopters and freeze your coconuts off if you didn't come prepared! That's right, it gets cold, so very cold at 10,000 feet!

When we left the beach it was in the 70's and when we got to the top of Haleakala I had to have the defroster on to melt the freezing mist off of the windshield. Of course we had no idea it was going to be that way (I didn't bother doing my home work before we went and since we were on a tropical island it didn't register in my brain at the time that the temperature would be different at 10,000 feet) so there I was in shorts, sandals and a t-shirt trying to hold my camera steady as I was shivering from the cold.

The scientists say that Haleakala is slowly shrinking and that it used to be 15,000 feet above sea level. It is slowly crushing itself under it's own weight. I think you probably still have time to see the dormant volcano though, I don't think it's going to disappear any time soon.

Of the two volcanoes that make up Maui, Haleakala is the biggest and youngest. They advertise an "early" morning trip to the top of Haleakala to see the sunrise. By "early" they are talking about being at the top of the volcano by 4:00 a.m.! If you are staying on the leeward side of the island that means getting up at about 2:00 a.m. to make the drive up. From Ka'anapali Beach where we stayed it's about and hour and a half to two hours from the beach to the top of the volcano. Needless to say, I didn't get any photos of the sunrise from the top of Haleakala!

One of the more interesting amusements I had was a water bottle that was in the back seat of the car. I had drank about half of the water in the bottle, last opening it at the top of the volcano. Once we got back to the bottom of the volcano and sea level, the bottle had collapsed in on itself from the atmospheric change on the way down. It's the little things in life, right?

If you take this trip make sure to take a pair of long pants and a jacket. There is a charge by the park service just before you get to the top of the volcano. It was $10 per car when we were there and that was good for a week if you wanted to make the trip more than once.