Haleakala Crater Hike, Maui, June 2008:
Dave organized a trip for myself, Jeff, and 7 others to hike Haleakala Crater
on the island on Maui. The trail starts right by the summit (~10,000 ft),
and descends to the crater floor (~6,400 ft) to camp Paliku, where we spent two nights.
The hike then headed to camp Holua for a night (~6,900 ft) before climbing up the crater
wall to our exit at around 8,000 ft. Needless to say, this wasn't the warm sunny Hawaii
in most postcards (at least at night), and one of the signs by the camps actually described
it as "summer every day, winter every night". Weather aside, Haleakala is beautiful, and
one of the few remaining places where indigenous and endemic plants can be seen everywhere.


'Sliding Sands', the trail from the summit to the crater floor. A 10 mile long, slow descent.
The trail is pretty easy to pick out.


The inversion layer moves up and down through the crater frequently


Silverwords are an endemic plant that adapted to live in the arid, cold environment here.
Their live-cycle is such that they bloom once after ~20 years of growth, and then die.


We descended enough to see more plant life.
The trail is on the right


A shot looking at the trail all the way back up to the summit


The secenry from Paliku camp.


Two Nene, Hawaii's rare, endemic goose.
Though not too bright, they are pretty, and liked to hang out at the camp areas.

Afternoon mists made for pretty rainbows, though not so much fun for camping.


Morning at Paliku.


More Nene at Paliku.
According to the sign at the camp, there are only 600 Nene in the wild.


The moon, over the crater.


Stones standing watch in the crater.


The section of the crater looked like Mars, with silverswords.


Foreboding mist ahead.


One of the most beautiful things was all the different shades of red dirt


High cirrus clouds over the crater.


Another silversword in bloom.
They have shallow, fragile roots, so going off-trail can kill them. Thankfully, these could be see from the trail.


The scenery at Holua.


Sunrise on the last morning.


The view during the climb out of the crater.


The crater vanishing into the clouds, in what looks like the end of the world.



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