Monday, November 8, 2010

Sunrise on Haleakala

The activity for Saturday is one that only interested Jeremy and me. Strangely we were the only two who were interested in getting up at 3:30am, driving up an old volcano, and sitting in the bitterly cold wind to have the chance to see the sun rise. From what I had read, sunrise on Haleakala Volcano is one of those amazing moments of nature that have to be witnessed to be believed. Unfortunately nature does not always cooperate. There is a good chance to you will get up early drive up to the top of the volcano and see nothing but clouds. For the sake of getting some potentially good pictures though, Jeremy and I were willing to take that chance.
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So we left the condo at 4am and began the drive to Haleakala. Sunrise was at 6:15am that morning so we had a comfortable 2 hours to get there, or so we thought. As it turns out, the drive up the volcano was much like the Road to Hana: all switchbacks with hairpin turns and therefore very slow speeds. We were starting to get a bit nervous that we might not make it in time until we finally spied the observation parking lot just after 6:00am. In fact we had enough time that we were able to hike up the little peak right by the parking lot to get an even better view. As for the weather? It was ideal. There were some clouds, but just enough to give the sun a line over which to rise. And I must say everything that I read was right. The sunrise was an amazing spectacle to witness, and worth getting up ridiculously early and freezing in the cold. I feel like I got some good pictures too.




















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