Kaupo Gap, Maui, Hawaii

View of the start of upper Kaupo Gap, a large stream-cut canyon partially filled in by lava flows, on the eastern side of Haleakala crater, East Maui. 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 then descends through the lush rainforest and ferns of Kaupo Gap, where it is often raining or dripping with mist (annual rainfall here is 250"/630cm), to Kaupo on the south-eastern coast of Maui.