Maui Day 3: Road from Hana, Haleakala Crater

On our third day, we again woke early and went to watch the sun rise at Koki Beach.

We then watched some crabs. There were so many! If we didn't move, they would scurry all around us.

Cool looking bird.

We went back to Tutu's house for a yummy breakfast of banana and mango bread, eggs, pineapple and lilikoi. We then packed up and headed out.

Just before leaving Tutu's.

A few pictures on the Road from Hana (ha ha!). They say that locals call it the "Road to Costco." It's so green and picturesque! And it was sunny which was a nice contrast to the clouds on our drive in on Wednesday.

U at one of our stops.

We then headed to Iao Valley and Needle. It is very green with very steep walls.

Here I am with Iao Needle in the background. It's hard to tell from this angle, but the Needle is over 2200 feet above sea level.

U with part of the valley behind him.

We then headed to the Flatbread Company where we had a flatbread pizza and a yummy salad for lunch. Our plan was to then head up to Haleakala Crater. I was nervous as it was really cloudy around Haleakala--I didn't want to drive up only to discover that we were in a cloud and couldn't see much. We decided to go ahead with our plan and hope for the best. As we started our ascent, we soon found ourselves in the clouds. It was quite pretty, actually. Here is a sample of the scenery we saw:

As we approached the entrance to the National Park, I started seeing blue sky and was super excited! I was quite surprised by how much was growing on the slopes of Haleakala. I guess I'm used to the Colorado tundra where there's not much. Certainly not bushes the whole way up the mountain!

Here U is at the lower visitor's center. Beautiful day!

We hiked Hosmer's Grove trail, which has lots of plants and trees, some indigenous and some not. 

Then we drove up to Leleiwi Overlook. It was a short hike and at first all I thought we were going to see was down the part of Haleakala we'd just driven up. It was pretty, especially with all the clouds below, but it didn't seem worth walking to see what we could see from our car. But then we turned a corner and saw inside the crater. Wow! It's really stunning! Definitely worth the walk to see all the vibrant colors!

U and Me by Leleiwi Overlook.

With Haleakala Crater in the background.

A panoramic shot U took from Leleiwi Overlook. It's really incredible!

This shot shows the wetter side of the crater. I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but there was a lot of green here.

A panoramic on the way back to the car. It was pretty, too, especially with all the clouds below.

U with the clouds. (I wasn't kidding when I said there were a lot of clouds! I'm sure glad they were at lower elevations so we had good visibility up top. And they made for beautiful scenery!)

We then drove to the summit for more spectacular scenery.

Silversword at the summit in full bloom.

Science City. It would be cool to see what they see at night!

Big Island of Hawaii in the background. It was cool to see it again! Someday we hope to visit.

U at the top of Sliding Sands Trail. We hiked down a bit. It's such a stark, barren landscape!

Me on Sliding Sands Trail. You can see that the cinder cones that are directly to my right are closer than in the photo above from the beginning of the trail. This was as far as we went since we wanted to be back at the top to watch the sunset. And the hike back takes longer since it is all uphill.

Here we are at the very top.

The temperature change from sea level to the summit can be 30 degrees or more. We brought along some warm clothes especially for the trip up.

We enjoyed watching the sunset. It was pretty!

And here's a little rodent that kept running around us. It must have wanted to share our food!

After the sunset, we stayed around for awhile to stargaze. That was amazing! So many stars and the Milky Way was so bright! And the Big Dipper looked HUGE as it was low on the horizon. We tried to capture some of it on film, but it didn't show up. Let's just say it was worth freezing ourselves to see (yes, even U was cold).

We then thawed out while driving to the west side of Maui to the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, where we stayed the rest of our time on Maui. It was cool to see all the tiki torches lit when we arrived and to hear the ocean from our lanai.

Favorite activity of the day:
Both: Haleakala