Haleakala National Park - Only In Hawaii
Rising in splendid isolation 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, Hawaii's volcanic islands are among the remotest lands in the world and among the least likely for life to reach -- much less flourish there. All of Hawaii's life-forms arrived by swimming or floating, by flying or drifting in the wind, by hitchhiking on migratory birds -- or as stowaways on a boat with man. The odds against surviving such a long journey are immense. Scientists estimate that perhaps only one new life-form every 10,000 years was able to colonize the islands successfully. In Hawaii, as on other islands, colonization often leads to some rather strange developments in the plant and animal life. Certain beetles and other insects, for instance, no longer have the ability to fly, perhaps because the number of predators from which they have to escape is far fewer than on mainland areas. Hawaii's native fauna includes no lizards and only two mammals: a bat and a seal.
Nature dominated the Hawaiian Islands for several million years. Then man arrived -- first the Polynesians about A.D. 400, followed some 1,400 years later by Europeans -- bringing animals that destroyed native plants and introducing new plants that competed with the old. Soon, even small animals like dogs and rats were attacking ground-nesting birds, driving them to extinction or causing them to flee to places that were almost inaccessible, still wild -- and safer, of course.
To this day, the Kipahulu Valley remains a primeval paradise, blessed with biological treasures. Exploring the valley for the first time in 1967, scientists were amazed to discover extremely rare birds of the Hawaiian honeycreeper family, such as the yellow and olive-green nukupuu and the Maui parrotbill, seen only once before in this century. Hawaiian honeycreepers are small birds, often brilliantly colored, and there are dozens of different kinds. Some, like the parrotbill, developed hooked bills with which to crack seeds; others have straight bills for plucking insects from crevices; and still others have long, curved bills that perfectly fit into the tube-shaped, nectar-rich lobelia flowers. Kipahulu Valley is also a stronghold of native Hawaiian plants.
Above this glorious rain forest, with its squawking birds and crashing waterfalls, lies the crater -- spellbinding, silent, and stark. Looking across its immensity, as its undulating cones soften the desolation, one cannot help being captivated by the powerful and mysterious forces of the earth. At Haleakala the earth's deep, fiery heart is revealed.