Upcountry Maui
Hawaii is not always a land tarnished by civilization.
Central Maui , in the nineteenth century "a dreary expanse
of sand and shifting sandhills, with a dismal growth … of thornless
thistles," is now a pastoral idyll, thanks to an ingenious system
of irrigation channels.
The highway to the top of Haleakala rises higher, at a
faster rate, than any road on earth. Starting in rich meadows, it
climbs past purple-blossoming jacaranda, firs and eucalyptus to
reach open ranching land, and then ascends in huge curves to the
volcanic desert and the crater itself.
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