The Haleakala Highway takes you to Haleakala National Park.  It’s a narrow winding road that takes you from about a 1000 feet above sea level to a little over 10,000.  And at the top you can see the collapsed crater of a volcano.  Perfect.

Sherry was driving, and all was good until we passed a sign that said, “Turn headlights on while driving through clouds.”  Haleakala means “the land above the clouds.”  That’s when Herb began to clutch the arm rest.  White knuckled, he mentioned about every fifty feet of the climb, “We are very, very, very, friggin high.”  The rest of his conversation usually contained something like, “Do you have to drive so close to the side of the road?”

Sherry was driving perfectly.  I don’t know what would have happened if she was a little nervous about the road.  I think Herb would have simply passed out.  We finally broke through the clouds, and soon a roadside turnout appeared.  There was parking for about 20 cars along beside a steep cliff, and across the highway was another steep drop off where you could view the clouds and Park buildings way below.

Herb cautiously crawled out of the car and huddled up against the cliff on the “safe” side and with trembling hands, lit a cigarette. Sherry and I ran across the road for the view and some photos.

… onto the crater

Uh oh.  Time to move into alternate plan persuasion mode.

I convinced them to take a drive towards the western end of the island, and maybe head up to Haleakala National Park.  We bought a road map and turned around with just a little griping from Sherry.

Our first stop was the Kula Botanical Gardens.

… more of the gardens

We arrived at the docks at Lahania around 6:30 and once everyone was fitted with fins and snorkel gear – all given special names by the Captain of the boat and her crew – we headed out to sea.  My mask and snorkel was called Mahi-Mahi.  Mahi-mahi is Hawaiian for dolphin fish.

I had bought a small digital camera that was waterproof the day before just for the trip.  Yeah – I know – I really needed another camera.  But I didn’t think saltwater would be good for my SLR, considering how my cell phone reacted to dampness.

The plan was to stop at three places around the island to snorkel.  At the first location we were all given snorkel lessons before we jumped into the water.  The coral was amazing even from the boat. and several sea turtles could be seen under the water or surfacing now and then for air.

I had left the strap for the little camera in Audie’s truck in my big camera bag, but I found a big rubber band to attach to the camera and loop around my wrist.  I wasn’t going to let a little problem like that cause me any grief.

I loved it!  Unfortunately, when I stuck my head above the water I could see almost everyone was back on board the boat.  I remember something came to mind like “candy-asses” but I went along with the majority.

…the beach stop

The park is in the valley formed from a collapsed volcano (a caldera) Iao means “cloud supreme” from the bank of clouds that are usually hanging over the valley. Throughout the park, there are signs saying that flash floods occur regularly because of the frequent and heavy rains.

Hawaii time is always twice as long as anywhere else. This morning, that was a good thing.

My shower was broken. It tried to squirt water. But it just couldn’t. Two little drops would leak out and then it would hiss at me and another bit of water would trickle out. And then it quit trying altogether.

Apparently, I was having a bath this morning. I turned the water on for the tub and there was no hot water. It was luke warm – barely luke warm to be precise. The little temp control on the faucet was locked at 105 degrees. I decided against forcing it past that temperature and crawled into a quick, cold bath. Some might say that would be refreshing. I’m not in that group.

An hour later (Hawaii time, remember) my ride returned and we were off. We took a quick detour on the way to Audie’s condo where I took these photos.

It is clearly and undeniably my brother’s fault. All I wanted was to know the quickest way out of Edmonton to get me to the Yellowhead. He gave me too many details (or not enough, I’m not sure yet) Anyway, somewhere during the discussion there was a 14 mentioned (or perhaps a 214) and a 16 (or a 216) The final result, according to my brother, was that even if I missed the turnoff, all roads led to the Yellowhead, if i turned north (or maybe it was south)

I know one thing for sure. I wasn’t supposed to take Highway 14. But I did.

Highway 14 is not a bad thing as it turns out. The little compass thingy in my truck said I was going east most of the time, and I figured I would eventually run into Saskatchewan. Where in Saskatchewan I wasn’t sure, but I would deal with that problem when the need arose.

There are very few towns along this highway, and hardly any signs to let you know where you are. It’s not a busy highway, and it’s actually in good condition. So I was on a good road, with no clue where I was. Oh well, as long as there was a gas station somewhere, I was okay.

I’m glad I took the wrong road, because I snapped a few photos I wouldn’t have been able to get on the Yellowhead.

They do get up very early in the morning though, and since their nest is pretty much right outside my bedroom window, sleeping in past 4:30 AM is out of the question.

The pictures were taken at the old causeway on #2 Highway. You can click on the pictures to get a larger picture.