After returning from our short hike down the Halemauu trail, we drove up to the top of Haleakala once again, not really because we wanted to go there a third time but because we wanted to check out the short overlook trails along the west rim, the uppermost one of which can only be reached when driving down the mountain from the summit. We did stop for a few at the lower visitor center near White Hill, browsing in the gift shop and taking a few pictures in the perfect weather. After leaving the visitor center parking area and heading back down the road, we began to look for the turnoff for the Kalahaku Overlook, finding it just a mile or so ahead. At the end of the short spur road is a small parking area and some stone steps leading up to a plateau on the west rim, where a small shelter has been built at the edge of the cliffs – it was only yards from the parking area, but the vista was just as broad as at the top of the mountain. Large meadows of ferns were visible below, and we could see nearly the entire route we had walked through the crater. There was a low rise further north, so we wandered out that way until it appeared that the use trails we were following ran too close to the loose rock at the edge of the cliff for our comfort. We snapped a few pictures and returned to the car, proceeding down the mountain a couple of more miles to Leleiwi Overlook, where a larger parking area is wedged into a crook in the road. Here, a slightly longer trail starts across the road from the parking lot and contours north and east around a shoulder of the west rim, being enclosed by a guardrail the last 30 or so yards. It, too, terminates at a similar shelter on the cliff’s edge, yet the view is substantially different – one cannot see the crater floor at its center, being lower in elevation, but has a view north to the Halemauu trail ridge and Koolau Gap that was blocked by outcroppings at the Kalahaku Overlook. We took some more pictures here, noting that we had made the correct decision in not descending into the crater proper – we would likely have just been reaching the bottom of the Halemauu trail, and the clouds were now gathering with some purpose over the area. As we returned to the car, we could see the last area of this part of the national park that we had yet to visit, Hosmer Grove, beckoning from further down the hill. Beautiful views and easy trails that would be nice options for Jane to take the girls to later in the week after Chris goes home.