Looking down at the cloud cover.
Today we took another driving tour, this time to the top of Haleakala, the main volcano of Maui. It’s last eruption was in 1790 yet it is still considered active. Most of the volcano is considered Haleakala National Park (http://www.nps.gov/hale/index.htm).
Looking
down at the cloud cover.
The cloud cover (and there’s always clouds) was at 6,500 feet so the summit was clear and beautiful. Again, luck was with me as the summit is usually cloudy and rainy but we could see the island of Hawaii in the distance.
We started the morning at 92° at the coast and by the time we reached the summit at 10,023 feet, it was only 63°. We planned our arrival to coincide with the sunset so of course the temperature kept falling. It was only 47° by the time we left the summit.
Sunset
from Haleakala
As we were star gazing another person came over and he turned out to be an amateur astronomer who shared his knowledge with us. There’s an observatory on the summit but it’s closed to visitors.