Greeting the Sun on the Pacific Giant

It feels like a special treat when you are there, like you are one of the first to ever see it, or like the place was just opened recently and you and your small tour were invited to the first viewing by outsiders….or at least maybe that’s how I view new locations that I visit and explore.  After you are back on the mainland and begin recounting the trip to friends and co-workers, you begin to see that so many people have been there and experienced the same things and then more of it, when they biked down the mountain but you took the tour vehicle back down the hill, and on and on…

Then you break out of that and start to see how the trip was special for you, how it fit into your life and your interests, how it fulfilled something in you that you were looking for.  Even just the thought is special and unique to you, in how a visit to that location was placed and stayed there on the long-term casual plan for years even decades.

All of the dramatic feelings I have tied to Haleakala Crater on the Hawaiian island Maui were really spawned from a multitude of things.  This includes the drama leading up the visit, the trip planning, the early rise, the climb up the mountain, the waiting in the dark for the sun to appear from backstage within this cold cold high-altitude amphitheater where you have seated yourself.

Civil twilight comes after the near-hour of dark-sky star viewing

If you have not ever done the trip before, you should know that you can find tour companies that will pick up in the hotel areas on the island, stop once before the mountain ascent for bathroom access and coffee/snacks purchases at your cost, then the ascent up the mountain begins.  The tour I took provided hot chocolate, coffee, and pastries once up the mountain.

This tour stopped at a couple of locations on top of the mountain, and after the descent included a lunch at a country club restaurant, and then everyone was dropped off at their hotels.  All told, a day from about 2:00 a.m. at pick-up, and around 1:00 p.m. when back at the hotel.  Tired, but a good tired.  A great tired.

A special note to those who would like to drive up into the National Park and visit the crater via rental car: reservations are required and if you do not make such in advance you will be turned around at the entrance to the park, halfway up the mountain.  The Park Service used to allow for a more casual trip/parking plan but found that demand was so high that drivers would come and when parking spaces were full, they would decide to park off-road and the damage to the fragile natural environment with its slow-growing floral species was very high.

The interior of the mountain theater slowly comes into view.
First the horizon and the cloud layers. 

Groups assemble at the mountain top, looking right over into the crater, and far beyond the eastern edge of the island the the Big Island of Hawaii still at sleep on the horizon.  I did not really have a grasp of the large crowd that had gathered in all directions, until the sun came up and I took some time to stop snapping photos off and actually look around.  A large, large crowd.

The depth of the crater below you once the sun breaks over the horizon is incredible, the look of the far-below cloud layers that you thought might be rocks are also incredible.  All is incredible (and more advanced but awe-generated adjectives as well!), as each element comes into view.

The sun arrives, exciting the senses and
defrosting all in the assembled crowd. 

The Park appears to the eye, as well as the scientific presence
taking advantage of the clear mountain air

The inter-island view to the east,
telescopes visible on the Big Island

View from the highest observation point in the Park,
with the Big Island visible again

The entire island chain, it seems is visible to you after the sun comes up.  The altitude is over 10,000 feet (not to mention that yes the island is really about 30,000 feet above the ocean floor, adding drama to the story) so it is little more difficult than usual to climb stairs and take longer exploratory walks.

A trip that is totally worth it.  You get a real connection to nature, the movement of the earth and sun, the drama of light and dark.  And the stars – so numerous it becomes difficult to make out constellations and the Milky Way band is easy to make it – is such a great prelude to the big bright warm show of greeting the rising sun.

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The park web site: nps.gov/hale/index.htm

Crater web cam: nps.gov/hale/learn/photosmultimedia/index.htm