Sunrise Ride

Haleakala National Park with two distinct areas. The day before we had explored the coastal area of the park off the Road to Hana. Yesterday, we watched the sunrise from the Summit of the volcano. Our day started with a 1:30 a.m. (yes, you read that correctly) wake up so that we could leave at 2:00 a.m. for the Haleakala Bike Company. We arrived at the bike shop at 2:45 and were on the bus to the Summit by 3:15 a.m. It was about an hour to the park and by the time we were at the top, it was a little after 4:00. We stood around in the 40 degrees cold huddled near the guard rail around the crater, waiting for the sun to rise at 4:45 a.m.

At first, the sky was a deep blue with dark clouds hovering over the crater. As we watched, it grew lighter and the clouds in the background began to glow. A few minutes before the sun peeked over the clouds, one of the bus drivers, began singing a native Hawaiian sunrise song greeting the sun. Haleakala means "house of the sun" and the summit is considered a sacred place to the Hawaiian people. It was really cool to look to the east and see the rays of the sun and then to the west to see the "moon set."

Moon set

We also had the rare experience of seeing the Silversword plant in bloom. Our bus driver told us that it takes 50 years for the plant to grow and bloom and then release new seeds. The plant is endangered, so the NPS is doing what it can to preserve and protect these plants.

Silversword plant

After we watched the sunrise, it was back in the bus back down the mountain and out of the park where we started our bike ride down the remaining 6,000 feet of the mountain. This was very similar to our bike ride down Pike's Peak and we had a lot of fun coasting down the road. I, of course, was always in the back, since I'm not as brave as the younger crowd and pretty much used my brakes at least a little the entire ride down. We stopped about halfway down and had breakfast at Kula Lodge, While eating breakfast we had a wonderful view, and we could see the ocean on both sides of the island.

View of both sides of Maui.

When we finished the bike ride and turned in our bikes, we were all surprised that it was only 10:00 a.m. It felt like it was the afternoon since we had been up for so long. That afternoon many of our group took naps. It was our night (the Spring Valley McKays) to cook dinner, so we went to the store and purchased a few supplies for our Build Your Own Pizza and Salad night. After dinner, Marc and Jackie and I walked out to the beach in search of turtles. Jackie and I went walking up the beach and on our way back, we watched a large one slowly edging up onto the beach. We watched for a while and then continued our walk where we came upon another turtle. Marc and my two nieces Jaimie and Jessie met up with us and we attempted to take some photos in the dark without disturbing the turtle.What a great end to an awesome day.

For another perspective, read my son David's blog here: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.com/