House of the Sun.

Through the wide angle lens of my camera this morning, you get a pretty good view from my vantage point from 10,023ft up.

From the above photo to my left was one of the impressive ridges that make up Haleakala Crater. BTW-the last 'a' in Haleakala should have a macron over it and if my keyboard has the ability to do that......I don't! 

The weather can be very unpredictable at the summit so as I soaked in the majestic quiet of one of the most glorious places on the planet, I kept my eye's on the cloud bank that threatened to push up the crater wall. 

Years ago I had a friend told me that the first time he went up to the summit with his girlfriend his fantasy was of romance, tranquility, a spiritual connection, your basic full blown magical experience. So he was in shock when instead of just the two of them kissing, cuddling and sharing the dawn's breathtaking arrival, it was the two of them and coach loads of parka wearing, camera clicking, shaka signing tourists......not quite what he'd had in mind. So this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find the parking lot half empty and people in quiet reverence which is easily accomplished with a view of a broader perspective on the world. 

Here's the live webcam It's  pretty nifty because you can type in any date and it gives you a short timelapse clip of that days weather.

I could have watched the clouds spill over the peaks all morning.....

....but it's cold as shite up there and when the wind kicked up, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (or more correctly because I can't roll my 'R's -BUR). I've always maintained the opinion that when travelling it doesn't matter where you are or how long it's taken you to get there, it is so easy not to be present. You could be at one of the seven wonders of the world but if you need to pee or are bloody starving guess what you'll be thinking about?. Such was my case as my fingers got numb with the cold my desire to cloud watch diminished. 


The park is home to many endangered species, the most famous being the Silversword. It only grows above 6,000ft elevation on the slopes of Haleakala and can live as long as 50 years, but (as with so many magnificent creations) it blooms just once then dies.

Death by blooming. 

Not a bad view from the office but it's just a bugger of a commute. What's up there? Well here's the best copy/paste I could find:

 The LURE facility, for example, bounced lasers off reflectors left on the moon, to measure tectonic movement on earth. Another, an Air Force observatory, is part of the USAF Ground-based Electro-optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system. In 1996, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab installed a system using one of this station's 39-inch telescopes to monitor space for asteroids that might pose the threat of a collision with Earth, as part of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program (NEAT). Over 5,000 asteroids have been detected by the system already. The Air Force also maintains a large satellite tracking and monitoring station here, part of the Air Force Research Lab called AMOS, or the Maui Space Surveillance System, which includes a supercomputing center elsewhere on Maui, and one of the most powerful optical instruments ever designed to identify and "characterize" enemy satellites. Also on site is a solar observatory. 

"lady in the back with the blue hat....yes you, oh I'm glad you asked" The dormant volcano has not erupted in over 200 years and is 3000 ft deep, 7.5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, a total of 22 miles in circumference. 

I'll shut up now and let you have a moment.