Haleakala

Skip the sunrise.

That is the whole guide, and everything below is why. The sunset from the top of Haleakala is just as incredible, and you do not have to wake up at two in the morning to see it.

Everyone plans the sunrise. Almost nobody plans the sunset, and it is the same mountain.

Why the sunrise is the harder trip

From the west side it is about two and a half hours each way. That is the number people leave out. The two in the morning wake up is not because the sun comes up early, it is because the drive is long, and you pay for it twice: the morning it happens and most of the day after it.

It also needs a reservation from the park service, and the sunset does not. Check the park's site before you go either way, since those rules move.

Put it later in the week

Whichever one you go for, do not make it day two.

You will wake up early on your own for the first couple of days anyway, and that morning is better spent snorkeling while the water is still flat. By the middle of the week you are on island time, the drive is a pleasure instead of a slog, and you will actually want to sit up there for a few hours.

Give it half a day

Do not treat the drive as something to get through. Leave in the early afternoon and make the way up part of the day.

Download the Shaka Guide before you go. It narrates the drive and it is worth the small amount it costs.

Stop for lunch at Paia Fish Market.

Walk around Makawao. It is a paniolo town, it takes half an hour, and it is one of the few places on Maui that has nothing to do with the beach.

What to bring

It is cold at the top, and it is windy, which is the half people forget. Colder than anyone expects from an island where it was eighty degrees when they got in the car.

A sweatshirt. Long pants. The blankets from your room. Chairs, if you have them, because you are going to be sitting there a while and you should be.

Stay after the sun goes down

If the sky is clear, do not leave when the sun does. The stargazing up there is the part people forget to plan for, and you are already sitting in the best spot on the island for it.

If it is clouded over

Do not wait it out. The mountain makes its own weather and it is not going to turn around for you.

Head straight back down the hill and have dinner at Marlow instead. It is in Makawao and it is a genuinely good night. Having a plan for the bad weather is most of why this trip works.

What I still do not know

We go up for sunset now, so I cannot tell you how the sunrise reservation system is working lately or what the crowds are like at dawn these days. If that is the trip you want, I am not the one to plan it for you.

I have also never done the drive down on a bike, which plenty of people do.