The November morning sunrise up at the crater of Haleakala that Jake and I experienced on our sunrise tour with Cruiser Phil's downhill bike ride was spectacular. The stars were out and bright when we first arrived at the top and the area where the sun would eventually come up was just showing slight evidence of the warming colors from a dark sky. As is typical there was a layer of clouds filling the seemingly endless horizon which laid below us at about the 7000' level. As the minutes progressed to the eventual arrival of the sun which at that day was about 6:30am we were treated to a continuous color change from moment to moment. If you took your eyes away from the view for even 30 seconds you would notice the difference in the spectrum of colors that awaited your return glance. Though each moment of every day is continuously full of change these moments at sunrise seem to offer the largest changes in the shortest amount of time and from the vantage point of Haleakala's crater rim these changes are magnified through a much larger scope. In the distance we could easily make out the tops of the Big Island's twin mountain giants, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea as their tops popped out of the blanket of soft colored clouds with the extreme contrast you might see of a marble statue draped in a flowing cloth garment. The crowd that had gathered to witness this event waited until the sun had clearly risen to its prominent position in the morning sky before relinquishing their position at craters edge to resume their Maui adventure which for most people meant descending to sea level on an exciting bike trip.
