Neel Parikh

Wake up at 3am… load up the car with plenty of warm clothes, charged camera batteries and a fresh memory card. Drive. Miss an exit. Take a U-Turn. Back on the right track. Drive some more. Miss another exit. Take another U-Turn. Back on the right track again. Drive some more. Get frustrated that a truck in front of you is driving too slow for you to enjoy the twists and turns of the ascent. Realize that you’re driving a rented Cobalt and that you’d probably break it if pushed it (but don’t worry, you’ll probably break it later in the trip anyway… more on that another time). Pass through a cloud layer. Arrive at the summit of Haleakala – 3055M (10,023 ft).

What’s unique about Maui’s Haleakala is that it’s one of the few places in the world that you can drive from sea level to over 3,000M without leaving the comfort of an exceptionally well paved road (and an exceptionally “meh” Chevy Cobalt). By the time we got to the summit it was about 5:15 AM. Plenty of time to enjoy a quick snack, bundle up, and stake out a good spot to watch an absolutely spectacular sunrise. A thick hoody and my trusty softshell were all I had… I mean, it’s Maui, how cold could it get? Well, apparently temperatures at the summit often dip below freezing, not to mention wind strong enough to make a tripod somewhat useless on my very non-aerodynamic camera.

For anyone looking to make the trip (which I highly recommend), there are two very easily accessible places to see the sunrise, the summit, and the vistor’s centre. The summit is a very short drive or a 15 minute(?) hike up from the vistor’s centre and has a glass walled hut that you can take shelter from the cold in. There are parking lots at both locations, although space up at the summit is limited.

The best weather to watch the sunrise at Haleakala is often when it’s crappy at sea level. The glow of the cloud layer turns a rather uninteresting rising ball of light into a pretty incredible sight. We were also lucky enough to catch the moon low on the horizon shorly before the sunrise, which put a big smile on my face!

What’s rather unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you want to interpret it), is that after sunrise, most visitors drive back down the volcano, have an IHOP breakfast, and sit on a beach working on their melanoma the rest of the day. An easy 4km hike down the aptly named Sliding Sands Trail into the crater (and a frustrating 4km hike back up), is definitely worth it. The crater’s landscape is littered with sand, boulders, and giant cinder cones which make you feel like you’re on a completely different planet. I think in total we only descended maybe 500M vertical, but the loose sand and scree made the hike back up daunting despite the relatively low grade. I guess I’m just out of shape! I’ve said it so many times before, but I really need to start doing some cardio – I’ll put that on my NY’s Resolutions list.