KH6/MA-001 Haleakala

Haleakala is the highest point on Maui and the third highest in Hawaii. It is in the eponymous national park. KN6REU and I were in Maui for vacation, so naturally we had to go do an activation. We decided to go up and watch the sunset from the the top of Haleakala. After a tasty brunch at the Kihei Caffe, we drove up the switchbacks to the park.

One of the viewpoints on the way up.

As you'd expect, it takes a lot of switchbacks to get from sea level to 10,000 feet. The drive from Kahului is about 90 minutes. The road is paved the whole way, and well maintained, so it wasn't a difficult drive. Once we entered the park, we stopped at the viewpoints on the way up. There are some impressive views into the crater.

Haleakala crater.

Before operating, we decided to go for a hike. We parked in the upper lot, at the summit. For some reason there is no trail between the upper visitor center and the summit, so we just walked down the road to the Sliding Sands trail. This trail appears to be the main way to get down into the crater, we hiked down a bit, careful not to go to far.

Sliding Sands trail.

After stopping by the visitor center on the way back up, we walked back up the road to the summit. There are a lot of people on top, as you'd expect on a summit with a road. We found a place out of the way on the side of the hill facing the observatory. It was pretty warm. We were both comfortable in just our sun shirts.

Easiest 10k' mountain I've ever done.

We put up the end-fed random wire and got on the air. I (aa6xa) started on 17m and quickly got a small pileup. We found we had cell service on the rim around the parking lot, but not in the lot itself. The towers must be below the summit somewhere. KN6REU spotted on 2m, but didn't get any callers.

On the air!

After aa6xa had finished, kn6reu tried 10m. She only got one taker, a New Zealand station. It was some neat DX, but sadly it was the only contact she got that day. After 10m we even tried calling on local repeaters to see if there was anyone to move to simplex, but no luck. Despite the failure, we both had a good time.

ham_bitious enjoys the sunset.

After we packed up we still had some time before the sunset, so we just hung out, enjoying Hawaii. After a picnic dinner, we claimed a spot on the little ridge to watch the sunset. It was quite nice, though a bit crowded. We were glad we had gotten up early and claimed a good parking spot. Some of the later arrivals had to park at the lower lot and walk up the road.

So many people watching the sunset. The people in shorts looked pretty cold.

The drive back down was made more interesting in the dark, with all the other sunset traffic, but we made it back to our room without any trouble. 

Trailhead: End of the Haleakala summit road.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Walk up the path, and find somewhere to operate.
Red Tape: None.
Video: coming soon...