Sunrise above the cloud, a dry shore of black lava and pale sand, and an east side we have been to but not yet photographed.
Haleakala at dawn • The Wailea crescents • Hana still to come
Explore Maui → Get Early AccessMaui packs three climates into an hour of driving. The summit of Haleakala is above the weather at three thousand metres and near freezing at dawn. The south shore below it is dry and warm, a line of crescent beaches separated by shelves of black lava. The east side, out along the road to Hana, is wet, green and slow. Very few islands change this much this quickly.
Haleakala means house of the sun, and the crater at its top is one of the largest dormant volcanic basins anywhere. The dry Kihei and Wailea coast on the leeward side was ranch and scrub until the resorts arrived in the nineteen seventies. The wet windward side has been farmed far longer, which is why the road east feels older than the road south.
Sunrise entry at the summit is managed and has needed a reservation in recent years, so check the current rule before driving up in the dark. Take a real jacket: it is near freezing at the top and warm at the coast an hour later. And nothing on this island is walkable from anything else, so a car is not optional.
Lahaina burned in August 2023 and about 2,200 structures were lost. Three years on the town is open and rebuilding, Front Street reopened at the start of August 2026, and the harbour is running tours again, but much of the historic core is still a construction site rather than a place to wander. The resort coast just north, Kaanapali through Kapalua, has been operating throughout and is where West Maui accommodation actually is. Maui County has been consistent that this is a community rebuilding for residents first and visitors second: spend money in West Maui, and do not treat the burn zone as a sight.
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Where the east coast turns green. The river cuts back into the interior, and the beaches…
Red walls and green ridges a thousand metres up, on the dry side of an island…
The bay where Cook was killed, the cliff above it that held the bones of chiefs,…
The shoreline below the resorts, where the swell works at a shelf of black lava and…
The sunny south side. Green sea turtles on the sand in the afternoon, and the beach…
The airport town, the harbour, and the most forgiving beach on Kauai. It faces east, which…
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