Hawaii
November 5-28, 2011
hawaii - november 8
Haleakela Sliding Sands Trail
Sliding Sands Trail - Part 1
The first item of business was to get our permits from the visitor centre which necessitated a short orientation session on wilderness camping in the park. Not really any dangerous animals so it was more about being prepared for the elements, making sure you have enough to drink and eat, and taking care of the fragile environment of the crater. Passes in hand, we drove up to the summit where we unloaded the van and kids while I drove the van back down to the trail end parking lot. The idea was for me to hitch a ride back up to the top with one of the many, many cars passing along... 
there's even a special hitchhiking turnout for this activity. The problem is that most of the tourists who come up the road are the resort types who were not about to stop for a single male hitchhiker (mental note, next time it'll be Sam and me doing the hitchhiking!). At one point I asked some of the people piling out of the cars at the top if they had noticed a hitchhiker further down and they commented how they had seen him and wondered if they should stop but they thought it suspicious to find a hiker in the middle of nowhere like that. ?!?!
Anyway, Rubby did eventually get a ride with one of the workers on his way up to the observatory but it made for a much later start than we would have liked (we only started the hike at 11am!). The first part of the hike was all downhill along a sturdy cinder path. It would have been a lot faster but the views were spectacular so we just kept stopping to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. I seem to be drawn to harsh landscapes and this one was absolutely "other worldly", especially with the beautiful reds of the cinder cones. (In other words, brace yourselves, I took *lots* of photos!)
An amakihi nabbing some food right off our breakfast plates (see the green plate).
Panoramic of Hosmer Grove campground as we were leaving.
Some nene on the side of the road. Closely related to the Canada goose,
they have adapted to living up on the Hawaiian volcanos, even losing the webbing on their feet.
The nene were hanging out by the visitor centre... Nene, a native endangered goose, used to be abundant and occurred on most of the main Hawaiian Islands. By the 1950s the birds were almost extinct and found only on Hawai'i Island. nene were one of the first wildlife species in trouble in Hawai'i that captured popular attention and spurred captive breeding programs on the island of Hawai'i and in Slimbridge, England. Nene were reintroduced to the island of Maui at Haleakala National Park. The park continues to play a key role in their recovery through habitat protection, feral animal management, and exclusion fencing. Currently, about 300 nene call Haleakala home.
The kids loved the nene and a story I made up about how the nene came to Hawaii ended up being one of their favourite bedtime stories during our trip.
It's funny how we travelled all this way and got so excited about the nene but we don't think twice about the geese when we see them back home!
Sam and Christopher have a granola bar as a second breakfast as we wait for Rubby to hitch a ride back to the summit.
Oh good... the kids are gonna carry the heavy packs... this hike is gonna be a cakewalk! ;-)
The view from the hitchhiker's pull out where Rubby is waiting to get a ride... the forested area to the right is the Waikamo Cloud Forest Reserve.
Still waiting...
At just after 11am, I finally arrive back at the summit and we are ready to head off.
The trail descends into a former eruption zone, where fountaining lava created a relatively recent series of cinder cones.
Glancing behind us, the people at the summit look so tiny already!
What may look like the summit crater is not a volcanic crater. On Haleakala Summit there was no massive blowout. The deep basin below is instead an erosional valley where wind, stream runoff, and landslides carried away loose cinders and soil during pauses in volcanic activity.
While it's obvious why this trail was called the "Sliding Sands Trail", the sand is actually hard packed cinder which was pretty easy to walk (and skip!) on.
The rich colours of the cinder cones in the crater made for a stunning landscape.
High cliffs around the basin measure the enormous mass of material that has washed away through Ko'olau and Kaupo gaps. Deeper valleys once gouged the summit floor, but more recent eruptions - the visible lava flows and cinder cones - partially refilled the basin.
Despite carrying her own lunch and water rations, Sam skipped ahead on the trail.
Perspective.
Nature's artwork. This reminded me of those sand scapes you can buy with the coloured layers of sand.
Christopher posing on the trail... we're higher than the clouds!
The red cinder cone in contrast to the black lava field behind it.
We would have loved to spend more time exploring the further areas of the crater floor but for a first overnight hike
(with no water available at any of the campsites) we couldn't do more than a single overnight.
What a gorgeous day!
Along the eroding sides of the crater it's hard for any vegetation to take root and survive.
kupaoa (Dubautia ciliolata) belongs to the sunflower family. It is part of the silverswords alliance, a group of Hawaiian endemic plants that scientists believe all evolved from a single plant species that probably originated in North America several million years ago. This species is known to sometimes interbreed with Silverswords.
Rubby along the trail.
While the cliffs are a reminder of how much of the summit of Haleakela has been eroded and washed down the gaps,
the trail shows some signs of erosion itself... no wonder people are asked to stay on the trail!
The summit climate of freezing and thawing loosens rock and accelerates erosion.
Haleakela will erupt again: from this viewpoint, at least seven eruptions occured on the landscape in the past thousand years.
With dusty hiking boots, the kids are having a blast.
Rubby's still smiling too... despite carrying by far the heaviest pack!
Some cool samples of volcanic rock along the trail.
With a well marked trail and lots of people travelling on it we falsely assumed that this was where the trail was meant to go. If the park wants to keep people from these areas they need to do a better job of posting which way *NOT* to go.
Sam liked the lei that had been placed along the path. An offering to Pele perhaps?
As we start to get lower into the crater we start spotting clumps of silverswords.
[ Sliding Sands Trail - Part 1 | Crater Snack Break | Sliding Sands Trail - Part 2 | Crater Floor Crossing to Holua ]
[ november 8 intro page | main hawaii page ]