16/09/2025
Postcards from 14 miles through Haleakalā, beneath a crisp, clear sky. 👣 We began at Puʻuʻulaʻula, the summit at 10,023 ft, and stepped down into the crater. Up here the air is thin, the sun is strong, and the silence feels absolute. You stand in a world stripped to its elements - sky, stone, and breath - like walking on the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. The valley below stretched like Mars: endless lava fields, desert-dry and painted in shades of red.
Among this harshness lives the all-mighty silversword - endemic to this land, able to survive up to 90 years in the volcanic slopes, blooming only once in its lifetime before dying. A reminder of patience and resilience.
We ran down “Rainbow Road” laughing, a slope of colorful volcanic sand that felt like the rainbow road in Mario Kart brought to life, past golden pits carved deep into the earth. As we journeyed on, life began to reappear: lichen clinging to rock, weaving the first threads of green where nothing else grows, the quiet architects of future ecosystems. A desert-mars landscape quietly transformed into a sky-mountain-island.
Then, the gift of an encounter with the rarest goose in the world!! A small group of nēnē, the Hawaiian goose - the state bird found nowhere else on earth. We sat with them for a while.
Finally came the climb. Switchbacks of the newer Halemauʻu Trail carried us back up and out. Our legs burned, lungs strained, but the view was heavenly - the wide Kaupō Gap stretching behind us, clouds rolling in, cool mist brushing sweat-streaked skin.
At last, we reached Leleiwi Overlook, collapsed onto the ground, and let gratitude sink in. For the silence, the colors, the life in unlikely places. For the journey through a realm that felt less like Hawai’i and more like another planet. For the reminder that magic isn’t just at the destination, but woven into every step - sometimes right beside us, and sometimes across 14 miles of crater and sky.
{ postcard layout inspired by 📷 }
