Tag: Maui

May 16, 2013

Hiking through Haleakalā crater

Way back on March 24th I took a trip to Maui with Daniel, Leah, and Leah. We stayed just south of Lahaina for 8 days in a great condo Daniel found through a charity auction.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the hike through Haleakalā crater. We parked the rental car at the Halemau’u Trailhead. That meant we had to hitchhike up to the summit and the Sliding Sands Trailhead. Luckily it didn’t take too long. After 5-10 minutes we caught a ride from a guy working on one of the observatories at the summit.

Starting down the Sliding Sands trail was pretty surreal. We started down early in the morning so the clouds at the summit were gorgeous.

Clouds at the summit of Haleakala

All the way in to the crater the terrain stayed fairly barren. Some low clouds drifted by as well which created a neat effect against the dry volcanic rock.

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The reds of the rock made a nice contrast, too with the blue sky that appeared later in the afternoon. We did make the mistake of taking advantage of a great view to have lunch, though. The view was great but where there’s a view there is apparently wind. Lunch was a short one.

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Part of the appeal of hiking in to the bottom of Haleakalā is the silversword, a rare plant only found in the crater. We ran in to plenty of them and they’re pretty unique.

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After hiking across the floor of the crater we hit a less barren area of terrain. My eyes had to adjust to the greenery a bit. There’s a cabin you can rent that’s just behind where I took this photo from. Next time I want to hike in to the crater and stay a night or two down there. Would be a great place to watch a sunrise.

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The hike up the Halemau’u trail meant that we saved about 1,500 feet of vertical. That’s not to say that the trail was gradual, though. If you look closely here you can see the trail switch backs weaving up the rock face. Daniel decided he was going to run it from the bottom. I think he got about a 1/4 mile in. 🙂

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One of my favorite hikes that I’ve been on. This was my first trip to Maui, or any of Hawaii for that matter, and I’m looking forward to heading back.

April 5, 2013

Maui – Travel Log, Recap

I got back from a week in Maui on Tuesday morning. The rest of the trip was a blast. I posted some earlier notes and, before I forget the details, wanted to recap the rest.

After that day 2 recap we got a lot more snorkeling in and ended up seeing 8 turtles varying from old, large ones to a relatively tiny one that looked to be not much more than 18 inches to 2 feet across. My favorite snorkel spot was Honokeana Cove. Despite the cold water and somewhat murky visibility it was fantastic to be swimming in cove filled with turtles. Pretty neat to watch those animals eat.

We woke up early at 6am one morning to make the 2 hour drive to Haleakalā, the main volcanic crater on the island. We didn’t go for sunrise and, instead, decided to do an 11.2 mile hike down the Sliding Sands trail and back up the Halemauʻu trail. Leah wrote up a fantastic post about that hike so I won’t recap the details. It was a great day and I have some photos to post later on.

For our last meal we headed to Star Noodle which was fantastic food. The steamed pork buns were amazing and my Hot n Sour was a wonderful bowl of broth, noodles, and all the fixings. Props to Toby for the recommendation.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and a nice way to get away for a bit. I still did a bit of work here and there but was mostly offline. After my first trip to Hawaii I can’t wait to go back. Handily I already have enough airline miles again to make that happen. 🙂

March 31, 2013

Status

Last day in Maui. 8 turtles swam with, 20 miles hiked, 4 frozen yogurt stops, and lots of sunshine. Hoping to post more travel recaps and photos soon.

March 27, 2013

Maui – Travel Log, Day 2

2 full days are in the books now and Maui is wonderful. We’re staying in a condo Daniel got just south of Lahaina. Nice spot with a full kitchen, BBQ, laundry, and one row of houses back from the beach.

The first day was pretty low key. Just hung out at the beach next to the condo, picked up snorkel gear, and made an epic trip to Costco. Daniel and Leah had made a trip to the Safeway in Lahaina the first day and after going to Costco I’m pretty sure that Costco 1/4 to 1/5th of the price. We bought way, way too much food including 6 pounds of ground beef, 4 steaks, 6 pounds of brussel sprouts, 6 pounds of edamame, and enough onions to feed us for a week.

Yesterday, day 2, we drove around to the other side of the island and hiked the Waihee Ridge Trail. The eastern side of Maui is much more what I was expecting the terrain to be like. Lush, wet, and filled with plants. The trail climbed about 1,500 feet over 2.5 miles and was a simple up and back. Really nice hike and there weren’t too many other people out on it.

After the hike we were all drenched in sweat. Humidity will do that. So we went straight to Oluwalu Beach to swim and snorkel. The snorkel gear we picked up for the week at Snorkel Bob’s, which is a great deal. $35 for the entire time we’re here for a mask, snorkel, and fins. The beachside sellers charge $100 and up for what looks like inferior equipment. The reef at Oluwalu was way better than Black Rock, which we swam in the first day. Here it stretched for a long, long way and we swam for about an hour. I’m terrible at tracking which fish we saw but we did swim with two sea turtles. One was swimming out to deeper water so we tailed behind for 10 minutes or so. The other, and much larger, one was content sitting under a ledge of coral. Would have loved to see him out and swimming as he was so much bigger.