Haleakala cinder cone, Maui, Hawaii 1979

View of Haleakala crater trail, Maui, passing along the lower slope of a large cinder cone, towards another large red cinder cone and beyond towards the wetter eastern wall of the crater. 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 of 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, a stream-cut canyon, where it is often raining or dripping with mist (annual rainfall here is 250"/630cm), to Kaupo village or the refreshing pools of Kipahulu on the south-eastern coast of Maui.