Heaven or Hell? Either Way, it was Beautiful

Never before in my life have I purposefully awoken ahead of the sun in order to watch it rise over our great planet. This is not to say I have never seen it, but I'm usually half asleep on the way to the airport or a conference in a distant city. I was a bit skeptical when friends and guide books told me that one of the must see things in Maui is the sunrise from the top of its highest peak, Haleakela. I joked with Karen on the way up that perhaps the locals fabricated a myth in order to watch tourists get up at 2:30 in the morning to make the 2 hour trek up the mountain. Myth or no myth, we both decided that we had to see it for ourselves. After a couple hours of sleep, Karen and I were up at 2:30 and out the door by 2:50 on our way up the mountain. We made pretty good time, until we got stuck behind a car that was a little unsure about the curvy road and insisted on going 10 mph below the speed limit. Nevertheless, we made it up to the top about an hour before sunrise. Light began to emerge from the horizon about 45 minutes before the sun actually rose and it was almost more fun to watch the stars slowly fade as ligher began to pore over the horizon. The colors were awesome and when the sun finally came up, it was incredible. It was like being in heaven...we were well above the clouds and all we could see was sunlight, clouds, and the volcano. It was truly worth the the early departure.

After watching the sunrise, we went down to the visitors center, about 200 feet below the overlook and decided to take a hike on the "sliding sands trail." The trail took us into the crater (which a ranger pointed out to us really isn't a crater at all, but that is another story) and into a different world. If I had looked hard enough, I'm sure I could find the mars lander and uncover a NASA consipracy. It was truly out of this world...some might say hell-like, but it was too breathtaking to be such a bad place. The hike down was very easy and a bit deceptive. Karen wanted to go much further, but I looked up the trail we hiked down and suggested we go back. I think it was a good thing we did, because it was quite the climb back up. After ascending back to the top, we drove down to a couple of overlooks to get more photos. Haleakala is definitely one of the best places I have visited.