La Perouse Bay

This is a far south as you can drive on Maui.  There is a foot trail that you can take even further south so several beaches, but we did not give it a go, so I cannot tell you what the trail was like.  Even just to get this far south you drive through fields of lava rock.

Looking to the north.

Now looking south

In this picture looking south you can see a few sandy beaches that can be reached by walking trails.

Oh could the colour of the water be any more inviting?

A closer view of all the lava rock.

A few pictures looking at the island and lava fields.

Iao Valley

In central Maui is the lush beautiful Iao valley.

Iao Needle, which is a prominent point sticking up from the valley.

Another view of Iao needle

Looking through the valley over  central Maui

The stream in the valley

A small waterfall in the Iao valley.

Sunset at Haleakala

After seeing the Haleakala crater and sheltered location on one of the short hiking trails we decided to stay and watch the sun set into the clouds. 

Late afternoon.

Getting closer.  This one was taken in the parking lot before going back to our viewing spot on the trail.

Off to the side, without the sun in the picture.

Aren't the clouds amazing?

The clouds almost look like molten lava with the glow from the sun as it is setting.

The cloud formations look like large boulders with a flat slab on top of them.

Finally the sun is gone into the thick cloud cover but the colour remains as intense as ever.

So if you are not into the early, early morning trek to watch the sun rise, we found the sun set to be pretty spectacular too.

Haleakala

We took the drive up Haleakala to the top of the crater, and even though it is cold and windy up there, the view was amazing.  Now we chose to go later in the day and decided to stay and watch the sunset, but this is a very popular early morning activity.  There are numerous companies that offer bike rides down Haleakala.  I think all of the tours take you up the crater in the wee hours of the morning to watch the sunrise from the top, which is at an elevation of  10 023 feet.  From there if the cloud cover is not too thick you can see the whole island.  Unfortunately by the time we went up the cloud cover was thick and you could not see below, but the view was still pretty spectacular if you ask me. 

Taken from the Haleakala National Park Headquarters where we had to make a quick stop for our national park stamp. 

Continuing our drive up into the clouds.

Just above the clouds now.

At the top now.

The view of the crater itself.

A few more of the amazing cloud cover.  It really is neat to see it from above rather than below.