Hiking Haleakala Crater, Maui

Hiking Trail thru Haleakala Crater

  During this rotation off the boat I wanted to do a little high altitude hike training. Contrary to most tropical islands, Hawaii would be the perfect place to accomplish this with its massive volcanoes and beautiful hikes in and around them. I had done the 12 mile hike through the crater of Haleakala Volcano once before and was eager to try it again. I remembered the changing landscapes, different colors of soil, and the silence that comes with hiking through this otherworldly terrain.

Roof of lava tube

Endemic Silversword

  I started out at the visitor center, just under 10,000ft down the sliding sands trail. This eventually lead 2,600ft down into the massive Haleakala Crater. I walked past giant cinder cones, lava tubes, and unique plants that can only be found here on top of the volcano. I even had a close encounter with one of Hawaii's most well known endemic birds, the NeNe. As I filled up my water jug at the wilderness cabin these two Nene came waddling around the corner and right up to me. They have obviously been fed in the past by hikers, which I wasn't going to do, but water is a different story. Both birds came right up to the water spicket and tilted there heads, opened their beaks, and greedily slurped up water. This went on for quite a while before they got their fill.

Friendly Nene

   After reluctantly leaving the Nene birds I made my way up the switchback trail to the Halemaumau trailhead around 8,000ft. All in all it was about a 12 mile hike, in altitude, so I felt like a good days adventure.

Switchback Trail to Exit the crater