Haleakala Crater Sunrise and Bicycle

Back when we first started telling people we were moving to Hawaii, we got to hear a lot of people's stories from the trips they had taken to Oahu and the other islands.  One excursion that kept coming up was Haleakala Crater and the activities that surround it.  The crater itself is MASSIVE.  It makes up 75% of Maui with a peak of 10,000 feet.  Though it hasn't been active since the 17th century, it's pretty crazy to imagine lava flowing out and down the side of it.

One of the activities suggested to us was to do the sunrise bicycle tour of Haleakala.  We ended up going with Haleakala Bicycle Company after reading a lot of reviews and they were a good group.  The bikes were better than some of the others we saw (9-speed vs. single-speed) and a comfortable bus ride to the top.  We had to meet at the bike shop at 3 am (ouch!) to check in and get our cold gear.  We took the long ride up the crater in the dark, getting some of the history and stories of the crater from our driver on the way up.

We finally got to the summit and it was still an hour and a half before sunrise.  Apparently the parking lots fill up and once they're full, you're out of luck so the buses get there early.  We were a little worried we wouldn't see the sunrise because a front had come through the night before, bringing a lot of clouds and rain.  Lo and behold, there was no sunrise.  At the time the sunrise should have been, one of the park workers sings out a sunrise chant to bring in the day, but there was nothing to see and it was FREEZING.  We couldn't believe how cold it was and were very grateful for the heavy duty wind breaker jackets and pants the company provided.

After getting everyone back on board, we rode the short ride out of the national park at the summit to a pull-off where we met the bike trailers.  We were fitted up with our bikes and off we went.  It was a really nice, easy bike ride since it was 95% downhill for 24 miles.

We stopped at one point to try and get breakfast, but the small shop was overwhelmed.  Instead, we went to the adjacent general store and grabbed a light snack.  We pedaled the rest of the way back to the bike shop in about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Our top speed was about 30 mph, but overall we kept a pretty good pace.  There were 3 uphill sections that got the heartrate up, but overall was a very easy and relaxing ride.  But, it had been quite a while since either of us had ridden a bike and, boy, were my sit-bones sore!  Totally worth it though, I would definitely do this again.  Once we checked back in at the bike shop, we went next door and got a pretty tasty breakfast.

The rest of the day we relaxed at our cottage on the cliff, soaked my sore bones in the hot tub, and got a nice nap after getting up at 2 am.  We went back into Paia that evening for dinner and got to walk around, checking out the little shops around the town.  The next day was our adventure to Hana, but I'll save that for another post.  Until next time, aloha!