Thursday, August 30~Sunrise on Haleakala~

The most beautiful views were just before the sun came above the horizon

Brrrrrrrrr!

Sunrise at 6:02

This morning came a little earlier than most.  We decided to make the drive up to the crater of Haleakala for the sunrise.  Matt agreed to drive and Sharon and I went along. We set our clocks for 2 am and met in the lobby at 2:30 for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the summit.  As you can imagine, there was not much traffic at that hour so we made the trip in pretty good time.  The road to the top, however, once you get onto Haleakala Rd becomes a series of switchbacks that can only be rivaled by the mule trail to Kalaupapa.  The drive was quite pleasant by the light of a nearly full moon.  We reached the summit close to 4:15 am and were among the first to arrive.  We knew it was going to be cold and I was not adequately dressed simply because I did not bring any shoes or jeans on this trip.  I did have a long sleeve shirt and my Columbia rain jacket but I could have used a fleece jacket, hat and gloves.  The temperatures were in the 30s and I am quite sure the wind chills reached the 20s before the sun came up.  The winds were unrelenting.  The views however were nothing less than spectacular.  Haleakala, in Hawaiian, means house (hale) of the sun ( a kala).  The most beautiful sight, that I regrettably did not get a photograph of, was the reflection of the sun in the full moon.  The trip was certainly worthwhile!