Hawaii

November 5-28, 2011

hawaii - november 8

Haleakela Sliding Sands Trail

Crater Snack Break

About half way down the trail we noticed the trail veering to the left in the distance towards one of the cinder cones. We had noticed a very colourful cinder cone from the summit and, thinking it was the "Paint Pots" had asked about it at the Visitor Center but were told that the trail to the Paint Pots no longer was open due to rehabilitation efforts. Instead we were urged to go to one of the other cinder cones down in the crater. Having somewhat lost our perspective and sense of direction, we assumed that we were much further along on our hike than we were, and we were quite delighted that the path would take us essentially right up to one of the cinder cones that had been recommended.

We soon realized our mistake (essentially when we were at the rim of the cinder cone and the path didn't go any further than around the cone) and we were aghast as it dawned on us that we weren't as far along as we'd thought and this had caused an unnecessary detour which we would have to double back (uphill!) on. Nevertheless, since the mistake had already been made, we decided to have a quick snack break and take the extra bit of time to enjoy the crater rim which although it wasn't the famed paint pot, was wonderfully colourful nonetheless. In the end we were thankful we did the detour!

There were no trail markers along the way but at one point the path seemed to veer to the left which seemed to be the direction we wanted to go.

Doesn't it *look* like we're heading the right way?

Although the day was beautiful, we kept our eye out on the clouds by the gap... weather is known to change pretty rapidly around here!

Rubby with one of the cinder cones in the background.

Although we'd been told that the path to one of the cinder cones was closed, we were happy to see this trail would take us past another...

At this point we had some doubts about whether we were indeed on the right path.

Christopher and I stop to check out a few silverswords.

As we get further down in the crater we see more of the silverswords along the slopes... too bad it's not the season for them to flower!

A silversword.

The crater looks completely desolate.

Considering all the erosion, it's amazing how permanently etched into the landscape the trail is.

Christopher posing with the 'volcanos'.

The path ended up taking us right along the rim of one of the cinder cones. It doesn't look so big til you try and spot the people along the rim.

As we started to realize that we'd probably made an unintentional detour,
Rubby ran along the path to verify that it was indeed just a loop around the cinder cone while we stayed put and had a snack.

Love the scale on this picture... Rubby just going for his daily run! *Grin*

Beautiful colours... i'm so glad we had a sunny day with blue skies for this!

It was nice to take the packs off our backs for a bit!

Sam feeling pretty proud for getting to hike in a crater.

Sam and I decided to take the cinder cone loop also while Rubby stayed with Christopher
(we still had a long hike ahead of us so we didn't push it when Christopher didn't want to do the loop!)

The kids would have liked to run around and play in the sands but we pointed out how each step off the path left its mark on the fragile environment.

So the kids played on this rock by the path instead.

In Hawaiian traditions, the crater was a sacred place... we felt very privileged today.

Can you see us on the other side?

How 'bout now?

Christopher having a rest and a snack (despite it being 1pm, we felt it was too early along in the hike to have our big lunch).

Zooming in to the bottom of the cinder cone we could see that others had climbed down it and left their mark.

Way in the distance we zoomed in to what looked like our campground for the night.

Heading back up the path to try and find where we went off the main trail.

Panoramic of the Haleakela crater.

 

[ 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 ]