Haleakala crater, Maui, Hawaii

View of southeastern wall of Haleakala crater, East Maui, and one of the colourful cinder cones. Haleakala (lit. *House of the Sun*) is one of Hawaii's youngest volcanoes (750,000 years) still considered active, having last erupted in 1790. The summit is 10,023 feet (3,000 meters) in elevation. The crater is 3000ft. deep, and covers an area of 7.5 miles x 2.5 miles. Because of its barren terrain and "lunar landscape" American astronauts trained here prior to making their epic voyage to the moon. The hiking trail across the crater is 11 miles long and traverses some amazing scenery from the dry alpine zone at the summit past red, yellow and gray cinder cones, black lava flows, to lush rainforest and ferns of the windward eastern side of the volcano where annual rainfall is 250"/630cm. This image shows the sharp divide between the dry and wet zones, with the dry lava in the foreground and vegetation on the crater wall in the background.