The hotel has a great koi pond.

Koi swimming in a sun-speckled pool.

Center courtyard of our hotel. There were 2 or 3 pools, a water slide, restaurant and access to the beach.

Cool-looking flower by the pool.

We took a drive around west Maui. This is Honolua Bay

Just a great view of the ocean and cliffs.

Surf's up!

View from top of the trail to the Nakalele Blowhole.

Nakalele Blowhole

Nakalele Blowhole

Behind Scott is the Kakakuloa Head. It is 636 feet high. The narrow one-lane road to this point was a little frightening. On the way back to the Olivine pools is got a little busy and hair-raising.

The Olivine Pools look a little gray under this overcast sky. The rocks in the area are full of small olivine crystals.

Sitting in the pools puts you almost at the same level as the ocean. It was cool to see the waves approach, but not hit you.

Anywhere there is a flat place to lie down is a good place to read!

Karin at the Olivine Pools.

View of the pools from high up the trail.

Nice view of a surf spot.

We drove up to Haleakala National Park. On the way we stopped at this great lookout spot for a picnic lunch. We spotted two paragliders way up in the sky. They take off up by the crater and can fly all the way down to the beach.

View of Haleakala Observatories and research area at the top of the crater (they are closed to the public).

Viewing platform at the top of the crater. This is where people come up to watch the sun rise. We weren't that motivated to get here at 5am, but the view at mid-day was totally worth the trip.

Elevation is 10023 and it is freezing up here, mostly because the wind is blowing so hard. Our model Scott is sporting the most popular way to stay warm - layers! There are some animals that survive up here on insects which are blown up from lower elevations (I read this on a park interpretive display so it must be true)!

Karin is going to take the observatory home to get a closer look at what they are doing over there.

View from in front of the observation desk at the top of the crater.

Ahinanina (silverswords) are scattered around the crater. The bottom leaves are silver and fuzzy-looking.

View into crater.

I merged two images to get a panarama view of the crater (that's why the road doesn't match up in the bottom of the image). I wish that we had more time to spend up here and hike. At this location you are protected from the wind and it is very quiet. It feels like you are on another planet, the landscape is just so different from the lushness just a few miles below us.

Scott measures the view for us.