Spectacular Beauty of Haleakala

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We get our continental breakfast "to go " this AM from the dinning room and quickly board the bus (Duane's Bus) to ascend from sea level to Haleakala at 10,000 ft. We are all prepared with warm clothing (rain coats)and told to walk slowly and breathe deeply to guard against altitude sickness. So we all settled in and ate our breakfasts and dozed. It is a 2 hour bus ride and we got to the top about 8:30 am. Susan had been told by park rangers that the road would be closed from 9:00 am on for road maintenance and repairs so we needed to be there before 9:00 and be ready to descend by then too! So it seems we were on a tight early morning schedule. Once we arrived, we were told that the road work was postponed till tomorrow. So not to worry about depature time.

It was beautifully clear and we could see all of the jagged landscape of Haleakala's crater. it was quite impressive! We did all the normal taking of pictures and asking of questions etc. When everyone was ready, we boarded the bus and began our descent. You want to see some real hairpin curves? They're on this road especally on the way down.

We were entertained by Duane (our bus driver) as we made our way down to the cowboy town of Makawao. We had lunch at the delightful Makawao Garden Cafe there. By this time the sun was out and it was warmer. We continued our journey through Pa'ia and stopped to observe the glyder surfers at Ho'okipa Surfing beach. Quite spectacular!!

When we returned to the Maui Beach Hotel we had a short rest/break time and then went out to dinner at Koho's restaurant in the Ka'ahumanu Center across the street. A short preview of the next day,and we were off to bed.

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Photos

The visitors center
Haleakala - House of the sun

Horse people ready to ride
It is popular to horse back ride around the Crater, have picnic lunch and then ride back.

Koko's Grill & Bar
Where we had dinner that night

Comments

[Ray]

Great Pictures
Marty, Thanks for doing a great job on putting the blog together. I look forward to the memories of a great trip each time I log on. Say hello to John. Is there any way to send a message that the whole group will get? Ray

[Marty Freeman]

Great Pictures
I don't think so- through the travelblog - can't you do it through your email? by sending a message to all the group emails ? Glad you are enjoying my travelblog. Marty