Haleakalā at Sunset

A short climb from the observation deck.

Today I left Honolulu on an early flight to Maui.  One of my goals is to photograph the summit of Haleakalā, the dormant volcano that comprises most of the island.

At 10,000 feet, the summit reaches above the clouds yielding an astounding display of color and light on the landscape when conditions are right.



Unfortunately for me, conditions weren't quite right for the sort of stunning landscape I was after, but it was still a beautiful and worthwhile experience.

On arrival, I headed to Pāʻia and checked in to the Rainbow Surf Hostel.  I took a private room as I planned to get up at 4AM the next morning and wanted to spare my bunkmates from my alarm.

I don't plan on spending much time at my home base so I had no issues with roughing it a bit in a hostel.  I grabbed a nap, picked up some groceries from the Mana food market down the street, and headed out to the national park.

Since I was traveling alone, not equipped to spend the night in the backcountry and not excited by the prospect of hiking back on unknown trails in the dark, I chose to limit my forays to the cinder cone near the observation deck and trails further up the road at the summit.

I arrived around 5PM and stayed until after 7.  I was hoping for some magic lighting but the clear, empty blue sky didn't really present much color, even as the sun went down.

These images were taken from the summit, just after the sun dipped below the horizon.

The colors were brilliant, but without a second layer of clouds in the sky to capture and diffuse the sun's rays, the effect was limited.

Not to worry, however.  I plan to be back here tomorrow morning to see what sunrise has to offer.

A scene from Tatooine?

Observatory in Silhouette

In the end, I did shoot some Provia 100 in my Canon A1 but I don't have high expectations.  The images here are the test shots taken with a Panasonic Lumix LX3.