I don’t want to bore you with a geological description of Haleakala, but I feel that I have to tell you a few of the reasons why, in my opinion, this giant dying volcano is the crown jewel not just of Maui but of the entire Hawaiian archipelago. By pure luck, we humans have caught it at the moment when the last throes of volcanic activity have been keeping pace with the destructive forces of rain, wind, gravity and, not too long ago, ice.
Recently, in geological terms, Haleakala was a smooth and relatively featureless active volcano, not too different from Mauna Loa. In the future it will be an ugly fossil smothered by an oppressive rain forest, as Kauai is today. But over the last few tens of thousand years – and bear in mind that no human had seen Haleakala until about 1200 AD, and perhaps more recently than that – the tug of war between construction by magma and destruction by weather has sculpted a grandiose landscape with few parallels on our planet. The summit of Haleakala is made up of a combination of hard lava flows of basalt and soft and porous cinder – the worst possible combination for seeds to take root. It rains and the summit is often clothed in fog, but despite this it is a high elevation desert, where very few plants are able to survive – only those that became adapted to the lack of soil moisture, the strong solar radiation and the freezing nights. Some of the most recent eruptions, small ones in the scale of these things, have built bright red and orange cones of cinder inside a huge dark valley which was carved into the summit of a giant volcano.
When the light catches this landscape in just the right way I always stand in a combination of awe and haste. Haste because, as everywhere in the tropics, that perfect light fades very quickly. You have perhaps one hour during which to get your photographs. After that it is a long slog uphill. in the short twilight and then the deep tropical night. All you are left with is the anticipation of another short visit to chase that perfect light.
The clouds are moving in from the Pacific Ocean onto Haleakala’s summit, shortly after sunset. Dusk will disappear very quickly.
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Very interesting article and beautiful photographs! Amazing colurs!
I’ve tried to cover most of your articles and I must say these are the images I would most want to create for myself. I’m happy you had the opportunity to visit this area. Quite surreal.
Thank you Antonio.
[…] and light, which makes them ideal for traveling and hiking.. If you have ever hiked down into the Haleakala “crater” from the mountain’s summit, then you know that the uphill hike back to […]