After seeing the sun rise on Haleakala we drove a bit further – to 10,000 feet – to see the silversword. Here you can see the parking lot down lower where we were standing when we saw the sun rise. 10,000 feet. It’s pretty high up there! I could definitely tell the difference when walking around.

I had no idea what Donna was even saying when she said silversword. Silver? Sword? Turns out, silversword is a plant that has been threatened since 1922 and only grows on Maui at Haleakala at an elevations of about 6,500 to 10,000 feet. The silversword is called ahinahina in Hawaiian, which means “very gray.”

The silversword almost went extinct because of excessive grazing by cattle and goats and by vandalism in the 1920s. There used to be so many silversword that people would just pull them up and roll them down the mountain.

Since the 1920s the plant has been closely monitored and is considered to be conserved. It’s official status is still threatened, though. These plants eventually do flower, but none that we saw were in that stage.

Haleakala National Park has more endangered species than any other park in the National Park Service.

As we walked out of a visitor center telling about Haleakala, we could see Science City, a gathering of space surveillance buildings and equipment. Haleakala is the ideal place for this sort of thing because the air is clear, dry and still, because of the elevation, and because there are no light pollution from cities. In fact, Haleakala is one of the most sought after locations in the world for ground-based telescopes. Science City is operated by the Department of Defense, University of Hawaii, the Smithsonian, Air Force, and the FAA.

Down the road more we seemed to be at the edge of the world.

You could barely make out the Kaheawa Wind Farm from the crater.

Saw this on a bathroom break. I don’t know who has been going around drinking the toilet water, that they feel the need to post this sign, but we have all been officially warned!

Oh, and requisite tourist shot of Dallas and I by the Haleakala National Park sign on the way out of the park.

After exploring the park Donna and Dustin took us to breakfast and then we all went home with our full bellies and passed out. So tired from getting up so early!