The crater at the Haleakala Volcano National Park on Maui was not made by an eruption, but by the constant erosion of the wind and rain in the time since the last eruption. Haleakala is, if you count distance from the ocean floor, taller than Mount Everest by about 600 feet. However, as you look around you as you walk in the crater, you can see the erosion happening before your eyes as every footstep kicks up some dust into the wind, and any step off the path starts a mini slide of fine volcanic sand down the valley to the sea.
You can see a list here of all the United States National Parks, with links to our stories about the ones we've visited.
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it is amazing the temp difference from the ocean to the top of Haleakala— did you ride bicycle down?
Yeah, Haleakala at the top was quite windy and chilly, probably about 20 degrees cooler than the beach. No we didn’t bike down. Evidently they don’t allow bike tours to go all the way up to the crater any more. We did see some bikers going down from about 8000 feet. But the craziest thing we saw was several motorcycle racers tearing ass up and down the winding road. Suicide junkies if you ask me.