Our condo was over there near Lahaina on the far west coast of Maui.

Which meant that every time we went nearly anywhere, we had to make a long drive.  For our first day's excursion we drove down south to Maa'aea and then north, past Kahului Airport where we'd arrived, and then southeast up, up, up to the top of the volcano and Haleakala National Park.

Doug's favorite place for breakfast on this drive is Kula Lodge and Restaurant
 

Nice view, huh?  And the food's pretty good!

The place is partway up the mountain.

There's a nice garden out back.

There's even a barbecue pit and cozy little seating areas.

Kinda reminds me of Hobbiton.

With a more spectacular view.

Now we've arrived at the National Park entrance.  And hey...what are those funny looking birds?

Incredible!  They're nenes, Hawaiian geese, and it's unusual to see them just wandering around like this.

I think they're not really very smart.

I mean, they just meandered around, paying no attention to all the tourists snapping pictures, and even worse, they were oblivious to the cars.

Maybe we can learn something about them at the visitor center.

The Nene (nay-nay), also known as Nēnē and Hawaiian Goose, is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The official bird of the state of Hawaiʻi, the Nene is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi. The Hawaiian name Nēnē comes from its soft call.

So what is this place exactly?  The name Haleakalā is Hawaiian for "house of the sun." According to a local legend, the demigod Maui imprisoned the sun here in order to lengthen the day.  The park features the dormant Haleakalā (East Maui) Volcano, which last erupted around 1490. The park is divided into two distinct sections: the summit area and the coastal Kipahulu area.  The two sections of the park average 1,450,000 visitors per year.

Bill's smiling, but he's cold.  It's chilly up here at the Haleakala Visitor Center on top of the mountain, where the only T-shirts they sell are long-sleeved.  The Visitor Center down below by the ocean sells only short-sleeved Tees.  Bill doesn't want a long-sleeved T-shirt so he'll wait til tomorrow to get his souvenir.

Doug told Bill we'd drive above the clouds.  Guess he was right.

At times we were actually in the clouds. 

Tourists.

Hardy plants grow in the rocky soil.

This is a fascinating landscape.

There's a cold, wind-blasted Visitor Center right up on top of the mountain. 

Bonnie headed inside.

And enjoyed the view.

The wind was fierce.  Doug says that's good -- because when it stops blowing, flying insects crawl out of the rocks and millions of them cover everything.  He said if the wind hadn't been strong, they'd have coated our car like a blanket of bugs.

Doug's  not going to let a little chilly wind drive him off the mountain.

Now THAT is an odd-looking plant. 

From Wikipedia:  The rare Haleakalā silversword is found on the island of Maui at an elevation of 6,900 to 9,800 ft on the dormant Haleakalā volcano — on the summit depression, the rim summits, and surrounding slopes — in Haleakalā National Park.  The Haleakalā silversword has been a threatened species as defined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, since May 15, 1992. Prior to that time, excessive grazing by cattle and goats, and vandalism inflicted by people in the 1920s, had caused its near extinction. Since strict monitoring and governmental protection took effect, the species' recovery is considered a successful conservation story, although threats remain.

This one's 200 feet too high.

This was the largest silversword we saw.

That's because we weren't around July - October when "flowering" generally occurs.  I grabbed this photo off the internet.

We did see remnants of the flowering.

But mostly we missed it.

Well whadda ya know?  We're in Hawaii, we're on a mountaintop, and surprise!  There's a search and rescue microwave tower that Doug installed.

What's this?  Doug didn't authorize that brown shed.  And they put it right in the middle of the driveway.  Grumble grumble.

This tower's still doing fine, though.

There are some observatories up here too.

And there's the Visitor Center back there by the crater, all above the clouds.  This is just an amazing place.