Well today started off a bit cloudy.  We had already decided we were going to go check out the Maui crater anyway, so we headed off at 8:30am.  We drove and drove, switch-back after switch-back.  Until, an hour and a half later, we had gone from sea level to 10,000 feet.  We passed above the cloud level at about 4,000 feet, and so we were looking down on the clouds for most of the trip.  It was amazing to see how they changed in the small time we were up there -- from a few, to a lot and back to a few.  The Kaleakala crater is simply amazing to see -- amazingly beautiful in a completely different way than the rest of the island.  Officially, it's not really a crater.  It's true enough that it was formed by a volcano, and because that volcano went off the last time in 1790, it's still considered an active volcano.  But the truth is that the crater is actually formed by erosion, and thus is not a crater at all, but an erosional depression.  Regardless of what it is, it's stunning.  Black lava looks like it just flowed down the side of the mountain last year, and red rock and dust makes it look like something from Mars.  There are cinder cones that formed from smaller eruptions that add to the out-of-this-world impression.  Perry and I were duly impressed.  Given that this crater is at the 10,000 foot mark and the winds from the ocean whistle up the side of the erosional depression, it was cold and windy up there!  So we didn't stay too long.  By 11:30am we were headed back down the mountain.  I forgot to mention that about half way up, we passed through a forest of Melaluka trees and the fragrance was amazing.

Another cool thing that was up there was the Silverswords.  They are a plant that is like a silver spikey bush.  They grow for anywhere from 20 to 50 years, and then they produce one huge blooming stalk, and then they die.  They're really neat looking plants, and they only grow on Maui and the big island.  We saw some that had just bloomed (the bloom was past it's prime) and I just couldn't resist taking a picture.

We decided to drive around the farm area on the side of the volcano, since a local lady told us the scenery was beautiful.  There was another road that went up the west side of the volcano and ended up in Palipali State Park, so we decided to check that out.  We passed by a Lavender farm that was amazing.  It had a little store where you could buy lavender products (which we did) and take a little walk through the farm.  They had landscaped a large portion of the farm so that the lavendar was interspersed with all kinds of other flowering plants and cactuses, so that the final result was beautiful.  Perry took a few pictures.

We continued on up the hill and passed by some hang-gliders and some RC plane hobbyists flying their planes.  Quite cool.  Above us it looked completely cloudy, so we thought it might not be worth it if it was all foggy.  But we drove up, and in a matter of minutes, punched through the clouds and were back in beautiful sunlight and blue skies again.  It was amazing!  So again we were above the clouds.  The road ended up in a Redwood forest!  Maui just has such a wide diversity of scenery and topography!

We were both quite tired by this time, so we headed back down.  Have I mentioned the fragrance and the flowers in Maui?  It's utterly astounding.   There are flowers everywhere -- even the trees are flowering trees.  And there are beautiful fragrances everywhere you go.  I just love it!