Haleakala Sunrise

In October I visited Maui again after many years away.  The last time I had been there was over twenty years ago for work I was doing at Science City on top of Mount Haleakala.  This time was purely pleasure and I saw many of the sites I had been unable to see when traveling for work.

One of the things I went out of my way to see was the sunrise at the Haleakala National Park. Sunrise was about 6:15am and accounting for travel time and setup it meant I had to get up at 3:30am.  When I got to the summit it was a balmy 40 deg F with 40-50 MPH winds, giving sub-zero wind chill.  I was able to setup at the crater edge with a few hundred of my closest friends.  At the summit altitude (10,000 ft) it is truly black because of the significantly lower air pressure.  Not as much air to bounce the light around so you have to be careful not to fall when walking around.

It is a spectacular view from the top.  You are looking down on the clouds which gives you an entirely new perspective.  The sky begins to brighten well before sunset and you are treated to the orange and blue skies with the clouds picking up the light all around their edges.  This 30 sec exposure reveals the details you just can't see with your naked eye.  The floor of the crater is lost in the darkness and all that is really visible is the small amount of light showing up from the sun.

There are details in the crater that look completely different with the pre-dawn light.  Here you see the crater with just the scattered light from the sun that hasn't appeared yet.  Very low contrast that can be brought up with processing reveals all the colors that are present.

The light continues to build until you begin to see the edges of the clouds begin to glow with the gold light.  The sun begins to make an appearance at the top of the clouds and fills the crater with light.

Finally the sun rises above the clouds and you realize it was worth the wait.   Even if you can no longer feel your hands and you lost your hat an hour ago when a 50 mph gust took it right off your head.

Other pictures can be found in the Maui Gallery at my website where they are for sale.  There is also a calendar of the sites of Maui found here on RedBubble.