Haleakala

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Haleakala is “house of the sun” - the volcanic crater that dominates eastern Maui. The sun’s power is well evidenced by the burns she bestowed on us while we hiked an awesome 12.5 miles down into this crater. Sunscreen and hats cannot match the power of the sun at 8-9000 feet. We had this enormous place pretty much to ourselves - over the course of the entire hike we saw less than twenty people, and most of them were on the way out. (To call it a crater a misnomer as it is actually an unbelievably huge basin eroded by wind and water over the millennia. But since ‘crater’ appears to be the popular term, we’ll go along with it…). It looks like Mars. It’s so huge that you can imagine the possibility of NASA setting up the Mars rovers down in it, instead of really on Mars, and no one ever noticing the difference.

The trail leads across the crater, around some colorful cinder cones and to the Bottomless Pit. The Bottomless Pit is the place where Hawaiians used to bring the remains of their loved ones - they would toss them into the pit so that their bones would not be disturbed and their souls could rise. We, however, left no bones here and thought it was a long way to haul our own bones, much less someone else’s. Those ancient Hawaiians were tougher than me.

We continued across the crater, over a’a and pahoehoe lava, and up over a ridge to a cabin / camping area for backpackers. There we saw a nene (goose), a species that was almost extinct one hundred years ago, and is now merely “threatened.” She was adorable and asleep under a picnic table. We had been warned that the nene can charm people into giving them food, and that this is very unadvisable because they then associate food with people and cars, and wind up getting run over. We ate while she slept and she was none the wiser. But before we left, she decided she was thirsty and walked over to a spigot near the cabin and waited patiently for Dan to turn the water on for her. She drank and drank and then drank some more. We took a few more photos and still she waited for more water. Again we turned the water on for her and she drank and drank. I assured her that more people would be along eventually and said goodbye. She didn’t say anything and stood, looking forlorn, at the spigot as we departed.

From there, the terrain changed again, and we walked through a meadow of sorts until we reached the cliff walls. We hiked in and out of the mist, up through the clouds and finally reached the top of the switchbacks and arrived back at the car, tired, but very pleased with our perfect day.

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Photos

See the trail?
yeah, that trail? way, way back in the distance? that's the one.

Most of the crater
The trail runs right through the middle