Get your coat and hat. It's cold up there, kids. No, really. We went up in July and it was in the low 30s at the summit before sunrise.
When you live in a place where the temperature rarely gets below 80 degrees during the day (and the weatherman/weather-lady FREAKS OUT when the nighttime temps are forecast to dip below 60), this is COLD.
I mean, we brought hats and gloves and SmartWool socks (which may just be the best socks ever, and no they are not paying me to say that). We had layers. We thought we were prepared.
No.
No, we weren't.
The other thing I'd like to point out about sunrise at Haleakala (which, by the way, means "Temple of the Sun") - you have to leave your hotel anywhere from 2-5 hours before sunrise, depending on how long it will take you to get from there to the park entrance. It takes almost 2 hours to drive to the top from the entrance. The road will take you on the quickest elevation gain in the world (I think) - you'll ascend roughly 10,000 feet in something like 27 miles.
When you get to the top (if you listened to me and left early enough) it will be pitch. black.
And did I mention in the low 30s.
If you were early enough you'll be able to get a spot right at the railing. You start to see a glimmer in the distance.
The day we went, it was really cloudy, so we waited a bit longer after sunrise for the sun to make its way above the clouds. While it wasn't the postcard-perfect sunrise, it was still amazingly beautiful.
When my eyeballs weren't frozen.
And finally, we were rewarded as the sun peeked its head above the clouds in a spectacular fashion!!
By this point, we were in serious need of the heat provided by our rental car, so we drove up the rest of the road a short distance to the summit! This is my idea of scaling a mountain - driving up a road to a summit house where the elevation is displayed for my photo-taking pleasure.
Hi :)
It was pretty cloudy still, so we couldn't see much of the surrounding scenery from the top. We looked around a bit and decided to head on down the mountain and continue our day. It was shocking to look at my watch and think about "continuing" my day when it wasn't even 8am and most people were just beginning theirs.
But as they say 'round these parts, if there is no rain, there are no rainbows. The clouds that had delayed sunrise and prevented us from seeing the surrounding islands made up for it with this beautiful scene as we left the park.
This is an activity I highly recommend if you are on Maui. It is extremely popular and touristy, but there is a reason all those people haul themselves out of bed at 3am. It's worth it. I promise!
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