Haleakala Sunrises–Fresh Every Morning

Catching a sunrise atop Maui’s Haleakala is truly spectacular. Each sunrise is unique. We’ve personally witnessed sunrise from Haleakala on three different occasions and they’ve all been different.

I want to share our photos from those three visits so that you can see the variations. I’ll share them chronologically. This first photo is from April 2003.

Our next visit was in January 2006. On this clear morning, we could see the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island rising above the clouds to the right of Haleakala. Can you see Mauna Kea in the following photo?

Our most recent visit was on a cloudy morning in April 2009. Though the sunlight was filtered through the clouds, you can see that this sunrise was even more dramatic even though the sun itself was not visible.

In this GoHawaii video, Cultural Educator, Nan Cabatbat, says that she’s been coming to Haleakala summit for more than 17 years and hasn’t seen the same sunrise yet. Isn’t that amazing?

If you are making Maui vacation plans, I hope that you’ll include seeing sunrise on Haleakala as one of your top things to see and do on Maui.  You’ll find these Haleakala articles to be helpful for your planning:

– Useful tips for seeing Haleakala sunrise

– Very important directions to see sunrise from Haleakala summit

– Comparison of whether you should see Haleakala sunrise versus sunset

We’ve been blessed to have seen Haleakala sunrise three times. I hope there will be a fourth time and then some more.