Sunrise at Haleakala National Park

   Haleakala National Park is on the southeastern part of Maui.  Sunrise at Haleakala was at 5:35am.  Considering the 6 hour time difference between Maui and New Jersey, we decided it would be easiest on our first day before we adjusted to the time change.  So we left at 3:30 am for about a 1.5 hr drive from Kihei.  Once we started the climb to the summit, it was a dark and winding road.  I must say, I was screaming at Matt to slow down!  lol... we made it safely up just shortly after 5pm.
Cold and windy, temperatures had dropped to about 40F at the summit. We had on long sleeved thin sweatshirts and windbreakers on and we were still cold!  So I wrapped myself up in a beach towel... but I highly suggest some gloves... our fingers were pretty numb out there trying to take pictures.

 

   After the sun was fully up, we wandered around a little taking scenic photos and pictures of the plant life.  It's also like a desert up here around the volcano!  But definitely still so breathtaking.  We were even fortunate to see a Silversword plant. A rare endangered plant found only on the

Silversword of Haleakala (Maui)

island of Maui, and nevertheless, at an elevation of 6,900 to 9,800 ft.  Too bad it wasn't flowering then.

   The wait.. the cold... the early rise... completely worth it.  The view was magnificent!  Between the glow of the sun over the horizon and some smaller peaks and the rolling fluffy clouds below us, it was breathtaking.  We took many many pictures and walked around the area after the sun was up.  There's a couple of lookout points prior to the summit observatory that you can see the sunrise from.  About 7am we began our descend.  It was back to the hotel for a morning a nap before we head out to Lahaina and the Feast of Lele.