Haleakala National Park
Happy Anniversary to us! I think we were able to celebrate our anniversary with the most incredible experience. We woke up this morning at 3 am in order to drive into the heart of Haleakala National Park and 10,000 feet up the mountain to get to the top of Haleakala Crater to see the sun rise at 6 am.
After we got to the top of the crater and parked the car, there were still about 300 yards to hike to a total elevation of 10,023 feet. You would not believe how cold it was. The temperature was around 40 but it was so misty and the wind was freezing. The clouds just kept rolling up the mountain bathing us in freezing cold mist. We were shivering so bad; the dew on our faces was turning to ice. Jon finally got so cold and skeptical that we would be able to see the sun come up through all the fog that he went to go wait in the gift shop.
I wasn't willing to risk missing anything, even if my toes were freezing in my flip flops (since my hiking shoes were still wet from yesterday).
We could tell that it was starting to get lighter but we still couldn't see anything but fog all around us. Then all of a sudden the fog started to thin and one of the park rangers started chanting in his native Hawaiian as the sky grew lighter and his chant grew louder and louder til it climaxed as the sun peaked over the mountain.
It was so captivating listening to the chant welcoming the sun and the warmth it would bring to our new day.
It was so amazing I can't even find the words to describe it. It felt like we were floating on a cloud looking down at the earth with all the mist around us and the beautiful colors it reflected from the sun.
Jon had come out again when it started to get light so he didn't miss the sunrise after all.
Haleakala is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of Maui. The other 25% to the west is formed by the West Maui Mountains.
The tallest peak of Haleakalā is Puʻu ʻUlaʻula (Red Hill). From the summit we could look down into a massive depression 7 miles across, 2 miles wide and 2,600 ft deep!
I really can't find words to describe how incredible this was. Wow!
We walked around the top of the summit for a bit, but it really was so cold. So we hopped back in our car and made our way down the winding mountain to enjoy breakfast and steaming hot tea at a nearby lodge.
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| Passion Fruit Tea |
It was fun to drive back down through the clouds.The prettiest rainbow greeted us as we came down off the mountain, giving us the promise of good luck for our anniversary,
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