We got up at 3:00 AM local time for our trip up to Haleakala for the sunrise and a bike trip down the mountain. We thought about doing this later in the trip but a friend who visits Hawaii a lot said that we’d naturally want to get up early because of the time change so we might as well take advantage of it.
It was about 40-45° and windy at the summit but not awful. The pictures below show the sunrise progression. A native park ranger was there to sing a tradition greeting to the sun.
And that was our first look at Hawaii in daylight since we arrived after dark the day before.
The bike trip was surprisingly pleasant. Not cold or scary. We hadn’t been on bikes in 20 years or so and we didn’t have any trouble. Morning glories run wild here; I can understand why they can’t ship seeds here. We saw protea flowers at a flower farm we stopped at for a snack, and some WWII bunkers.
Sadly the company we toured with is no longer in business because it was a fun and well-rganized outing.
