Haleakalā Volcano

The centerpiece of Maui is the (conveniently accessible) Haleakalā volcano. A well paved, winding road takes you from the warm beaches up to the cold, barren summit of the island.

The conventional wisdom is to wake up at 4am, race the other tourists and tour vans to the top, and sit in the cold darkness, until you’re treated to the sun breaking over the clouds. The thought of waking up that early, while on vacation, didn’t appeal to us. So, we opted for the, less busy, sunset option. If we ever return to Maui, we’d make the same decision again.

While we knew it would be colder than the rest of Hawaii, we thought: "We're Canadian; we can handle it!" Our arrogance got the better of us, and the light autumn clothing we begrudgingly packed with our flip flops wasn't adequate. We ran around in an attempt to stay warm.

The setting sun illuminates the cloud cover, making it bright white as it billows across the rust colored rock. When the sun fell below the cloud line the sky exploded with fiery shades of pink, red, orange, and yellow.