Sunrise on the summit of Haleakala
Up at 4:30, out by 5:00, and 1.5 hrs driving later, we were at the summit just in time to see the sun jumping out of horizon. The summit was already packed with people from various tour groups. It was freezing cold and extremely windy.
A group was ready to go 3000 meters downhill.
Another group was riding horses into the valley.
The lunar landscape on top of Haleakala
This huge span of 12 km by 4 km is not a caldera, as I used to think, but a valley caused by erosional processes. The far side looks deceptively close — it took the ranger two days to hike to the other side of the valley!
Ahinahina, also called "Haleakala silversword", lives only above 2200 m. Ahinahina only blossoms once at the end of its life, and makes a spetacular flower display on its huge stalk.
We saw this little guy and its mate on the summit. Their feather colors blended in very nicely with their surroundings so it was very difficult to spot them.
Clouds on craters and lava flows
The craters were formed from different volcanic eruptions. That dark flowing river-like thing is actually made of solid rocks. It is still dark because it was from the most recent eruption (200-500 years ago).
Looking back at the summit
Twisty descent and rolling hills