Last year I had the incredible chance to visit Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands and arguably, the best! Maui is home to the Haleakalā National Park. Haleakalā being a huge, active volcano at 3,055m elevation, with a vast crater to explore.

When I visited, I took on the traversing Sliding Sands trail. The full trail requires you to hitch a ride as it’s a point-to-point so instead, we chose to do our own out-and-back version for more flexibility.

The “sliding sands” refers to the colourful streaks of sand swooping down the crater’s inner edge. Being inside the crater feels like being on an entirely different planet. One with its own signs of life, like the endemic (meaning, only found in a single place on Earth) ‘āhinahina or Haleakalā Silversword, pictured below.

These cool, furry guys were dotted all over the crater’s valley – a great example of an alpine desert environment. It’s hot, dry and high above the clouds. We were exposed for the entirety hike making sun protection and lots of water essential.

It was such a fascinating place to explore and yet was also so accessible. There is a road that takes you all the way up to the Summit District and this trailhead.

I loved watching the fluffy clouds race in and flitter across the crater’s valley. It was like nowhere else I had been before. That is until recently, when I visited Mount Kilimanjaro, which has a similar Mars-like climate zone at its higher elevations.

The “main event” at Haleakalā though is to watch the sunrise from the summit. To do that, you need to reserve a pass through the National Park Service website in advance – and you better be quick as they get snatched up in minutes. In a freak glitch, although we got to the confirmation screen online (which we diligently screenshot), we later realized our tickets weren’t emailed to us. After a call to the National Park Service and stating our confirmation number, we unfortunately learned our booking had not successfully stored on their end. This meant we had to wait until 7am, disappointingly post-sunrise, to access the park. Too bad for our then trip, yet it’s given me the perfect excuse to travel back to this gem of a place.