Haleakalā

House of the sun

Hale is a house, akalā is the sun — Haleakalā, the house of the sun. The name comes directly from the story: Māui climbed the mountain and snared the sun's rays as it came over the rim, holding it until it agreed to move more slowly so his mother's kapa could dry.

It is among the best known of all Polynesian stories and it is attached to this specific summit.

The crater

The depression at the top is not a true caldera but an erosional valley later partly filled by cinder cones. It is about seven miles long and the cones inside it stand hundreds of feet high.

Haleakalā National Park protects it. The summit at 10,023 feet is above the cloud layer, which is why people drive up in the dark to watch sunrise from it — reservations are now required.

The silversword

ʻĀhinahina, the Haleakalā silversword, grows only on this mountain. It lives for decades as a silver rosette, flowers once on a stalk up to six feet tall, and dies. It was nearly collected to extinction and has recovered under protection.