Maui Monday: Zippin’ Down Haleakala

The massive dormant volcano on Maui, known as Haleakala, is famous for its breathtaking sunrises and out-of-this-world landscapes, and last year close to 800,000 visitors* explored the boundaries of Haleakala National Park. While nicknamed The House of the Sun, Haleakala is more than just a place to watch the sunrise–you can enjoy one of the many challenging memorable hikes through the backcountry, stay at one of the three Wilderness Cabins within the park, book a tour and ride a bicycle down the side of this volcano, and even float down the slopes on a paragliding tour.

My dear husband will probably kill me for saying this, but he’s a little accident prone (and when I say little, I mean a lot). 🙂 And if you’ve ever been caught in a traffic jam on the steep, narrow road of Haleakala you may agree that the idea of bikes and cars don’t mix. Sometimes it feels like the Indy 500 racing down those slopes after sunrise. As much as I love the thrill and adrenaline-rush of any activity considered “dangerous” we both agreed that we didn’t want to spend our precious vacation days in the hospital, so a bike riding tour was out of the question.

So you can imagine my surprise when on the morning of my 25th birthday, my sweet husband told me that he had booked us an adventurous and adrenaline-filled tour on those famous volcanic slopes… my heart skipped a few beats until he exclaimed: “We are going Ziplining!”

As a surprise birthday present, Cody booked the Skyline Eco-Adventures Haleakala tour: a 90-minute adventure comprised of five different ziplines scattered throughout the thick upcountry forest. The ziplines start small and work their way up to a grand finale where you’ll spread your wings and fly through the forest reaching speeds upwards of 45 miles per hour. Along the course you’ll cross an Indiana Jones-style swinging bridge, zip across lines perched high above the forest floor, and even test your fear of heights by stepping off a platform 70 feet above the ground (don’t worry about that first step, you are safely secured to the zipline!)

Photo Credit

Throughout the tour you’ll learn about the native wildlife and hear about the conservation efforts by Skyline Eco-Adventures. For example, in the last ten years the company has planted over 2,000 native trees on Haleakala and the reforestation efforts are paying off as more native birds have been seen throughout the area. An afternoon of play in the Haleakala treetops AND contributing to a good cause…that’s my kind of afternoon! My only wish would be more lines and faster speeds 🙂

On our next visit I’m considering the Ka’anapali tour: 8 ziplines with expansive views of the Pacific–how can I pass it up? Would you go ziplining??

 Now, let’s talk about that paraglading tour…  🙂

*Statistics provided by the National Park System