No Fixed Abode: Volcano Hike

Tues 10 Nov - Haleakala Park

Woke to birdsong at 7am and whilst having breakfast admiring the view, the neighbourhood walkers stopped by to chat with us again. This morning we managed to strike camp and be on our way at 8.30am, which we were impressed with. We drove to the Summit of Haleakala (10,000 foot dormant volcano) up a 21 mile road of twists and turns driving through clouds, mist and a little sunshine. It is cold up here but still the tourists arrive wearing flip flops, shorts and T shirts. The summit is the home of Science City that comprises of several observatories. The views above the clouds were of Moana Loa and Moana Kea which are on Big Island, Hawaii. The visitor centre explained how the valley was formed (although plenty of people call it a Crater but it isn’t). We grabbed a trail guide and set of on the route Shifting Sands trail which takes you to the valley floor 2000 feet below (4.5 miles). The trail as the name suggests was mainly volcanic black sand and passed through various volcanic landscape from huge boulders to dust fields but in the main very arrid, although we saw several Silversword plants which are unique to Maui. The trail down was totally in mist although once we arrived on the valley floor this lifted and the sun revealed the cones of several newer eruption (7000 years ago). We deliberated over going further following other routes however, we wanted to ensure we got a space at the first come, first served campsite (Hosmer Grove) in the National Park. This typically gets busy this is where campers who plan to leave at 4am to drive up to the Summit to watch the famous sunrise stay. Tonight we decided to give the gas powered hot water shower it’s first outing and rigged up a makeshift screen to preserve our modesty. As the air temperature was falling sharply (10deg) this was a rather hurried affair but everything worked fine and the good news was we were clean again after 3 days. We are planning on sleeping in when the sunrise chasers leave.