Haleakala

Another National Park built around a volcano.
...OK, here we go again.

That was my mindset going into it. It turned out to be totally different from Volcanoes National Park and extraordinarily beautiful. The main difference is that Haleakala is far older and has eroded much more leaving the surface much sandier and often more colorful. In some places the whole scene changed every few minutes from desert to sagebrush to colored sand to lava fields.

The crowning touch for me was being able to see the peaks on the Big Island 100 miles away. It gave a nice sense of closure to the trip and was my own little piece of Maui magic.