Haleakala

Haleakala on the island of Maui is a spectacular place to visit. It is a 10,023 foot high volcano that has a deep, 2600 feet, crater like erosional valley at the summit that is about 7 miles by 2 miles in size. It is truly a spectacular place to behold. Tor and I last visited it on the marine science trip we met on in high school 22 years ago.  

On this trip we wanted to share it with Lars and Odin, so on their birthday we went up the mountain and they became Junior Rangers. But as we went to the summit, we ascended through clouds, and couldn't see a thing (and got really wet while outside!). I really wanted to go there for sunrise and a chance to actually see the erosional valley (thank you Junior Ranger curriculum, I now know it isn't technically a crater!) rather than clouds. We figured our intrepid Junior Rangers Lars and Odin would like the adventure of getting up in the dark and making the drive up the mountain again, to hopefully actually see the view at the summit. 

The drive to the summit takes about two hours from Lahaina, so we asked the harbormaster of the very small harbor at Lahaina if they had space for us at the dock to save us the row in from the boat at 3:00 am. Thankfully they found us space. We all piled into the rental car we shared with our friends aboard S/V Asunto, a fancy red Jeep Wrangler, and made the trek. We weren't the only people with the same idea and the line at the ticket booth to get into the park was very long. We got to the summit just in time for sunrise, got a parking spot, pulled on all our warm clothes (the thermometer on our car said 40 deg F) and it was all socked in, yet again. 

This is what we saw of the sunrise

Cold, but we are making the best of it!

Fortunately we waited around enough that the clouds burned off some and we would catch short glimpses of the valley. Stunning.

The V alley

Odin even runs uphill at 10,000 ft of elevation.
He did admit to being a little winded ;)

Self timer family portrait

Playing games to pass the time between cloud breaks

School for the day, Junior Ranger activity books!

The other Junior Ranger hard at work

Silver sword plant. These live only on the summit area of
Haleakala, no where else. A very rare plant indeed.

The sliverswords are descended from a sunflower relative
called tarweed whose seeds blew over from California. 
The resemblance is very clear in the flowers!

 It was a great day, despite the clouds and we were so glad we went.

Pete and Sara, another great use for a Puddle Jump Bag.
A pillow for car naps!