14. Maui - Haleakalā National Park

The alarm clock unmercifully jerks us awake at 2 AM. Outside, it’s pitch dark, and while the rest of Maui is still sound asleep, we peel ourselves out of bed. It’s time for one of the greatest adventures of our trip: the sunrise at the summit of Haleakalā Volcano.
At exactly 2:37 AM, we are in the car. The roads are empty, but the higher we wind up the endless serpentine roads, the more concentrated we must be while driving. The darkness is dense, the curves sharp – the drive feels like a journey to another planet.
Around 4:50 AM, we finally reach the Summit parking lot at nearly 3,050 meters. Perfectly on schedule: The drive has taken just over two hours, and we snag one of the coveted spots before 5 AM. When we open the car door, we are hit by a shock – it’s freezing cold! Suddenly, a slight panic sets in: I just can’t find my jacket in the dark car! Luckily, René saves me and lends me his jacket. Without it, it would have been really uncomfortable. We didn't bring any blankets – instead, we’re fully committed to the layered look, wearing two pairs of pants and several sweaters on top of each other.
The tropical warmth of Maui is completely forgotten up here.
There’s already quite a bit going on at the crater’s edge. We share this moment with many other travelers. Everyone stands closely together, murmuring quietly in the dim light of their flashlights, staring intently into the darkness. The excitement in the air is almost palpable.
And then, just before five, it happens: The twilight begins.
A delicate, deep blue stripe suddenly separates the pitch-black sky from the dense clouds lying below in the crater. The blue slowly transitions into a deep violet, flowing into soft orange. The light changes every minute, and the sea of clouds beneath us begins to glow.
When the Sun Fills the Crater
As the sun finally breaks the horizon, the sky ignites. A murmur goes through the crowd. The stark, Mars-like colors of the volcanic crater come to life with the first rays of sunshine. In that moment, every minute of sleep deprivation and every shiver is completely forgotten. It's an unbelievably incredible experience that must be felt firsthand at least once in a lifetime.
My finger practically glows on the camera – in the end, I must take about 200 pictures because the light changes every second, and each perspective looks even more beautiful than the last one!
Only when it's really bright and we head back to the car does my jacket mystery get solved: It has been sitting, clearly visible, right in the middle of the dashboard the whole time! In the absolute darkness of the night, I had completely overlooked it.



After the overwhelming play of lights, my stomach speaks up. We make ourselves comfortable at the car and unpack our breakfast. Rarely have homemade egg sandwiches tasted so good as they do up here at the summit of the volcano!
Freshly energized, the next highlight awaits us. We don’t want to just look down from above; we want to experience the lunar landscape up close. So we lace up our hiking boots and walk a section of the famous Sliding Sands Trail down into the Haleakalā volcano crater. The path leads steeply down into a surreal red-black ash landscape that completely captivates us. The way back, however, is quite challenging: hiking uphill at over 3,000 meters is definitely much harder and more exhausting than expected! The thin mountain air makes the heart rate shoot up immediately, and the fine lava sand continually gives way under our feet. Every step back up feels twice as heavy – we have to take breaks repeatedly to catch our breath.
Haleakalā is a classic shield volcano that formed about two million years ago on the ocean floor. Above a hot magma flow – a so-called “hotspot” – the volcano built layer by layer from thin fluid lava until it finally broke through the water's surface.
The massive basin at the summit, through which the Sliding Sands Trail runs, is technically not a real eruption crater. When the volcano took a long break, wind and heavy rain eroded two enormous valleys into the mountain that met at the top. Only much later did smaller eruptions create the colorful ash cones that give the landscape its surreal Mars appearance today. By the way, the volcano is not extinct but is considered dormant.
Finally, we descend the mountain by car again. But we don't just drive through! On the way back, we make stops at the lookout and the visitor center.
Here, the kids have the next goal: They are eager to expand their proud collection, as we've already collected some national park badges on our travels. Fortunately, this time the two don’t have to do much to impress the rangers at the center. Since we witnessed the sunrise and had already hiked actively in the crater, we have essentially fulfilled the key requirements for the explorer booklet just while we were sleeping and on the trail!
Eventually, the short night claims its toll. Ahead of us are nearly two hours of driving back from the volcano to our accommodation. While René heroically takes the wheel, I quickly bid farewell to the land of dreams – I keep dozing off in the passenger seat. René impresses me every time anew with how alert he stays behind the wheel after such a monumental activity!
For a quick stop at Walmart, there’s just enough energy left to replenish some supplies. Around 1 PM, we finally close the door to our hotel room behind us. Now there's only one goal: Close your eyes and take a well-deserved afternoon nap!
The rest of the afternoon passes calmly, and we all feel drawn outside to the hotel pool. Later in the day, the inevitable part of traveling arrives: We slowly start to pack our things. Tomorrow we head to the Road to Hana.