No. 3 See the view from the top of a mountain

July 31 2018
Haleakalā, HI

This one definitely evolved… I do not know what kind of imagination I had seeing myself “climbing” a mountain. So I adapted to “See the views from the top of a mountain”. Much more reasonable.

I picked Haleakala on Hawaii, which is technically a volcano. And just so I don’t get caught on technicalities, per the US Geological Survey “Volcanoes are mountains but they are very different from other mountains; they are not formed by folding and crumpling or by uplift and erosion. Instead, volcanoes are built by the accumulation of their own eruptive products — lava, bombs (crusted over ash flows, and tephra (airborne ash and dust). A volcano is most commonly a conical hill or mountain built around a vent that connects with reservoirs of molten rock below the surface of the Earth. The term volcano also refers to the opening or vent through which the molten rock and associated gases are expelled.” So yes Haleakala counts as a mountain.

We booked ourselves on Skyline Hawaii’s “Haleakala Sunrise n’ Zip Tour. I would highly recommend this company for a multitude of reasons but the biggest being that you need a permit and reservation to visit the Haleakala National Park at Sunrise (it gets really popular). Check out the national park page here if you want to get the reservations on your own, but if you book with a company like Skyline, it is all taken care of for you (even the warm clothes) and you don’t have to drive!

The morning starts off EARLY! Skyline will pick you up from your Condo or hotel and our pick up time was 2:10am. They bring everyone they’ve picked up that morning to their storefront to sort everyone into our tour groups. We got breakfast (pastries and some warm liquids) and got fitted for our winter gear. If you can’t tell from my face, it was FREEZING. This picture was an hour or so into our sunset viewing and I had pants, a long sleeve, a hoodie, snow pants, a snow/wind breaker of sorts, snow gloves and a sweater band for my ears. And I was still too cold to function.