On our first full day on Maui we got up at 3 am to drive up to the summit of Haleakala volcano. Up and up and up a winding road we drove for about an hour. Haleakala means “house of the sun” in Hawaiian and this is where we came to see the sun rise.
At the top it was COLD. About 40 degrees and windy. Our elevation was 9,740 feet. Almost 10,000 feet up. Did I also mention that it was about 4:30 a.m.?
A lot of people were gathered, waiting for the sun to come up.
Donna and Dustin and Dallas and I were among them.
But, it was still a while before the sun would come up.
The crater was filled with clouds.
Haleakala is officially considered an active volcano. There have been many eruptions in the past 30,000 years, but the last one was in the 1600s.
From the summit you look down into the crater which is 7 miles across, 2 miles wide, and 2,600 feet deep. The walls of the crater are steep and there’s not much to see inside.
The sun was coming up in front of us.
But the moon was still out behind us.
Everyone was so excited and anxious to see the sun.
Here comes the sun.. do do do doo do.
Hawaiian folklore says that the depression at the summit of Haleakala was the home to the grandmother of Maui, a Hawaiian god. Legend says that Maui’s grandmother helped him capture the sun and force it to slow its journey across the sky to lengthen the day.
It goes without saying that this is the highest point on Maui, right? Well, I said it anyway.
Around this time it occurs to me that maybe I shouldn’t be looking directly into the sun through my camera. Everything started looking red. Like everything like Donna and Dustin and Dallas.
Back to the sun.
It was so gorgeous, I just kept taking photos!
Beautiful. At almost 10,000 feet up.
And, again, the sun is up now, but the moon is still out too.
WOW! Awesome photos! So that’s what we missed, huh? We got stuck somewhere in those clouds and gave up.
In the 10th photo you may have some of the famed Green Flash
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22green+flash%22%22&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=CaFnSsvgL4KUtgePn8D_Dw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5
I thought the green flash was only at sunset, not sunrise. I don’t think I saw it.
Really beautiful photos Shell. We can take our dream vacations vicariously through you!