Haleakala National Park

At Haleakala, it's all downhill Every day, about an hour after first light hits the green hillsides of upcountry Maui, the spokes begin to sing. If you stand along the road by Sunrise Market in the hamlet of Kula, you'll first hear the buzz, then with a whoosh the bicycles come around the bend: tourists by the dozen, their heads encased in heavy-duty helmets, their bodies wrapped in rain suits, their speed about 20 mph. They're going 27 miles, following about two dozen switchbacks, rolling past hardened lava and cane fields, fruit stands, lazy livestock and three small towns.

Visitors to the Petrified National Forest in Arizona annually steal 12 tons of the fossilized tree remains that give the park its name, marking one of the more blatant reasons for naming it to the National Parks Conservation Assn.'s list of the 10 most endangered parks. In a report released Wednesday, the conservation group ranked 10 areas most threatened.

The National Park Service on Wednesday announced the suspension of commercial bicycle tours within Haleakala National Park, one of the most popular tourist activities on Maui. Park Superintendent Marilyn H. Parris said the "safety stand-down" was effective Oct. 10 for at least 60 days and was needed after last week's fatal bicycle accident, the third in a year.

In Hawaiian mythology, the goddess Pele governs volcanic activities on all the islands. Her tempestuous reputation may account for the packages of rocks that have been arriving almost daily since the mid-1980s at both Maui's Haleakala National Park, site of the dormant Haleakala Crater, and Hawaii's Volcano National Park, home of Kilauea, the world's most active volcano. Sometimes letters explain why the rocks are being sent back: tales of misfortune. What does it mean?

The 10 best bicycle rides in the West? Impossible. Even a 100-best roster couldn't embrace the variety, hair-raising terrain and eye-popping scenery. So this list is limited to favorites that colleagues or I have ridden, ordered alphabetically and tilted toward the Golden State. Distances, where given, are approximate and, unless otherwise noted, are one way. Angel Island State Park, San Francisco Bay: Paved and dirt roads on this mostly undeveloped, 470-acre island offer panoramas of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay and more — if the day is clear.

A San Fernando Valley man who was trying to save his 7-year-old son from drowning died after being swept out to sea, national park officials on Maui said. Kevin Oakley, 41, of Sun Valley was swimming in the lower pool of a stream with his wife, Michelle, and their children, Brielle, 11, and Austin, 7, about 6 p.m. Monday. When the boy's slipper floated away, he went after it.

The National Park Service was liable for the drowning of a New York woman who fell into a Maui stream and was swept out to sea, a federal judge has ruled. Visiting U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie awarded $2.3 million in damages Monday in the May 4, 2002, death of Xina Wang at Haleakala National Park. Wang, 42, fell while trying to cross Oheo Stream near the Oheo Pools. She was swept over several waterfalls and out to sea.

Face it - we were born way too late. Barring a biblical revelation, we'll never know what the Beginning of Everything looked like, whether it was a Creation or a Big Bang or something else we haven't figured out. But after one sunrise on Haleakala, I do know what an epic earthly event looks like. You fly to Maui, take to your hotel bed nice and early, and ask for a wake-up call around 2:30 a.m. Then, even though this is a balmy Hawaiian island, you bundle up and drive up the slope of the dead volcano that dominates the island's geography.