Maui - Feb 25 - Haleakala

We cruised about 200 miles east from Kaui (our furthest west point on the cruise) to the port of Lahaina on the west side of Maui.  This port wasn't deep enough for the ship to go all the way to the dock so we had to take tenders to shore.   

 Our first destination was the rim of Haleakala. The rim is at about 10,000'. The bus stopped a few times. The first picture of Ann and me is at about 5000'. From this viewpoint you can see the entire isthmus between the south (a bit left of the pole) and the north shore (just to the right of my left shoulder) on the west side. The mountains on west Maui rise to about 5500'. The island has started to sink and in about 100000 years, the isthmus will be under water and Maui will be two islands.

At about the 8000' level we passed a bus of other tourists from our cruise. That bus had blown something and diesel smoke was coming out the back. They did get a substitute bus. 

Also, the National Park service now forbids bicycles from going all the way to the top of the rim. Thus the ride I took on a bicycle from the rim to sea level in 1993 is no longer done by anyone.

The two images of the crater (one with me and Ann, one with Ann make the crater seem small. Actually it is about the same size as the island of Manhattan. Also, the crater is not geologically a crater but an eroded valley where a crater once was (the sides of the mountain have tumbled into the crater). This has happened over the past 2 million years as Haleakala has been eroded from about 15,000' to about 10,000'.

In this looking-east image with no people, you can see Mauna Kea (the mountain looks blue) above the clouds just to the left of one of the peaks of Haleakala. Mauna Kea is about 80 miles away. That's my image but others have done it better. For example see Summit post here.

The image of Ann is looking west from Haleakala shows the south shore of west Maui and two islands. These are Kaho'olawe on the left and Lanai on the right (Lanai is about 40 miles away).  Up until about 1 million years ago, these islands, as well as Oahu were connected to Maui but there base has been sinking.

The last image shows the Haleakala silversword, a rare plant which only grows in the wild above about the 7000' level on this mountain. It is a member of the daisy family.  Coincidently, on March 15, 2015, the comic strip 'Mark Trail' had a strip completely devoted to this plant.