The Rambling Writer: Maui’s Haleakala Volcanic Crater

Join Thor and me for a visit to the stunning Haleakala summit and crater.

While we didn’t make the very twisty drive up to the summit on our recent trip, I was browsing photos from our 2012 trip, and thought I’d close out this series with those memories.

The translation from Hawaiian is “house of the sun,” and legend has it that the demigod Maui held the sun prisoner here in order to lengthen the daylight. It’s high enough at 10,023 feet for a delayed sunset!

An observatory at the top monitors satellites and debris orbiting the earth, as the skies are usually very clear up here.

The last eruption of the now-dormant volcano was around 1480-1600. The crater is, geologically speaking, an “erosional valley” 7 miles across, with large cinder cones. The colors are gorgeous, and if you drive up late in the day, you can see sunset across a blanket of lower clouds. Just remember to bring a warm jacket, as it gets pretty chilly up there.

The amazing Silversword plant is found only here, and is now endangered.

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s Caribbean suspense novel from Book View Café is ISLANDS, which draws on her experiences working as a scuba divemaster on various islands, and also her research into petroglyphs.  Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com