Upon our descent from the summit of Haleakala, we stopped at the Kula Lodge for breakfast. We had been up for over six hours at that point without any coffee or food and froze our rears off up on the summit. Needless to say, we were thankful to have our hands warmed and bellies full.

While breakfast was good, the highlight of our stop at the Lodge was its gardens. Which we would have missed if the hostess wouldn’t have pointed us in the right direction when Will stopped to ask a question about some flowers. The lodge itself sits high upon the hillside overlooking the valley. We really didn’t get the full experience of the views as there was still cloud cover in the valley. But the gardens were magnificently backlit with the morning sun.

Everything was dewy and radiant. It is almost as if the flowers in Maui make photography too easy with its copious amounts of sunshine, super saturated colors, and exotic flare. But sometimes easy is welcomed break.