14 miler on the otherside of the crater

Weds 18 Nov Hosmer Grove & Haleakala Halemau'u trail 

Up and out early to beat the clouds, we were at the trail head by 8.30am.  In long trousers, fleeces, gloves and hats (as the sun had not yet risen fully) we set off on an arduous but rewarding trail down in to the valley (crater) floor. This trail started much lower than the summit trail, so it was greener with more vegetation. We walked a short way to a viewpoint, the end of the trail for most site seers, before beginning 2 miles of zigzags to reach the valley floor. The lower we went the higher temperature became and we finally ended up in shorts and short sleeves. 

At the bottom we were really surprised to find grass and shrubs but 1 mile on towards the lava became more prevalent and one of the cones appeared on the horizon with its barren look. This side of the valley floor is less popular for hiking so we only met a handful of hikers and of course we much preferred this. The last leg of the trail towards the valley floor took us around the base of an eruption cone. The colours and rock formations were different on each side, including bright reds, oranges, greys and blacks. 

Homeward bound for the 7 miles back, the clouds disappeared and the sun became very hot but luckily the breeze was still around. At the foot of the climb out we replenished our sugar reserves and prepared ourselves for the arduous trek back up with all the zigzags slowly taking us back to the car park.  We knew on the way down this route would be right pain coming home. From the start Yvonne was on a mission to catch up with some hikers who started just before us and grunted up the trail in formidable SAS style.  At one point we had the sun behind us and saw our shadows projected on to a cloud in front of us with a rainbow around, this is quite a rare experience called a brocken spectre so we were dead chuffed.

Back at the camp site we rigged up the annexe to the tent, filled the water container to the brim and both had long and hot showers to end a perfectly exhilarating day.

The zig zag trail down

Valley (crater) floor 

Eruption cone

A Broken Spectre - the two black blobs at the bottom are us.

Yvonne enjoys a hot shower