An excursion during our stop in Maui. More Haleakala photos are available in my Hawaii Cruise gallery.
Haleakala is reached via an extremely long drive along a tortuous route. (An excellent airborn shot of the road can be seen on pp. 64-5 of McCloskey & Attini's "Hawaii From the Air".) On most tours time at the top is very short - typically no more than an hour to see and do everything.
The return trip is the reverse of the trip up. A preferred method is to bike down; there are many "hen and chicks" bike tours available that ride down the mountain to Kahului.