Sunrise on Haleakala

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Making this early morning trip was on the list of the things I had to do. So our second evening on Maui I told Jack that tomorrow we need to get up at 3:30 AM. He was reluctant to agree to that. I said fine, that I would go without him then. He didn't want me to get lost or drive off a cliff (again?) so he woke up with me the next morning.

We dressed warmly, wearing the long pants and sweaters we wore to the airport in Seattle. The drive to the top of the mountain took about 90 minutes. It was pitch black and very cold up there. We never put the convertible top up on the Jeep because it was a moonless night and it was crystal clear -- we were amazed to see so many stars.

Each of these pictures has the time from my camera... that is Seattle time, which is two hours later than Hawaii time.

We got up at 3:30 (5:30 Seattle time). It took a little over an hour to drive to the top. We bumbled around in the darkness for a couple of hours before we could see much without a flashlight.
12/16/02 8:25:14 AM

It was very cold at the top. All the way up we were freezing in the Jeep with the top down. But the sky was so clear and there was no moon. You could barely make out the Big Dipper because it was lost in all the stars around it.
12/16/02 8:42:12 AM

So I was cold, tired, and add to that being at 10,000 feet above sea level the air was thin for me. I would get dizzy if I walked around too fast.
12/16/02 8:52:28 AM

We waited for over 2 hours for this first glimpse of the sun at 8:53 (Seattle time). But for the previous hour the darkness was giving way and we could see the fog in the valleys below.
12/16/02 8:53:24 AM

On the very top of the mountain there is a shelter. About 100 people were there.
12/16/02 8:53:48 AM

Jack isn't normally a "morning person".
12/16/02 8:54:36 AM

This is "Science City"... a bunch of telescopes and stuff near the summit of the mountain.
12/16/02 8:55:14 AM

I didn't know we were in such a rocky, barren part of the island until the sun came up.
12/16/02 9:07:28 AM

I have to thank my friend Gayle at work for telling me about this.
12/16/02 9:08:26 AM

I guess we lucked out. You can come up here and have the mountain top covered in fog too.
12/16/02 9:08:50 AM

I guess we had near ideal conditions for a most dramatic sunrise.
12/16/02 9:09:52 AM

In the background are the mountains on the "other half" of Maui. I didn't get a picture, but you could clearly see the Big Island from here too.

As we start to drive down, the fog has lifted from the valley.
We froze our buns off and we were tired. And it was worth it.

Sights Along the Hana Hiway

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