Haleakala descent
Distance: 16.04 km
Elevation Gain: 0 m
Elevation Loss: 898 m
Difficulty:
48 (Easy)
FIETS Index: 0.00 FIETS
Avg Grade: -5.60 %
Max cat climb: 5
Min elevation: 2144 m
Max elevation: 3041 m
Ride Category:
Flat
Cyclists come to Maui, in Hawaii, USA, for one of the great climbs of the world, up a volcano whose name comes with a legend. Haleakala means “house of the sun”: the demigod Maui is said to have climbed to its summit and lassoed the sun to slow its journey, so that his mother Hina had longer days to dry her bark cloth. Its summit “crater” is in fact a basin about 12 km long, formed when erosion cut two valleys back into the mountain until they met. Haleakala is dormant rather than extinct: its youngest lava is only 400 to 600 years old. The thin, dry air above the clouds makes the summit one of the best places on Earth to study the sky, and it is home to the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the largest solar telescope in the world.
This ride descends the park road from near the summit to the visitor center at park headquarters. It is the top of a climb that rises about 3,000 metres in some 57 km from Paia on the coast, without a single break. The winners of the Cycle to the Sun race cover it in under three hours. The road was dedicated in February 1935, when 320 cars drove to the top on opening day. Commercial downhill bike tours used to start at the summit; since 2007 they have had to begin outside the park. The slopes along the road are the only home of the Haleakala silversword, a plant that can live for decades, flower once, and die.
