Maui Day #3: Road to Hana

Every time I Googled things to do in Maui, the Road to Hana popped up as a "must see." Though every sight warned it was a LONG journey and a tough ride with lots of switchbacks and 59 bridges; 46 of which are one lane. The speed limit for most of the road is only 15-20 MPH and you have to stop to let others pass. So we headed out early and made sure we had a full tank of gas (since there is none on the road!). 

We left our condo by 7 and didn't get home until 8 pm-- stopping for dinner this actually made it a fairly typical Road to Hana day (especially since we were staying on the other side of the island).  

waves near Ho' okipa lookout-- they were HUGE on the way back. I see how they nickname the big waves surf-break "jaws"

Our first official stop on the road to Hana was at twin sisters falls:

Only one twin was flowing; you can see the spot off to the left where the other fall should be

a cool cavern off to the right with lots of roots hanging down

There is a second waterfall a little ways up from the first.

As we got back to where we parked we saw that tons of people had come pouring in after us. We managed to stay ahead of the crowd pretty much the whole day though. 

The app we paid for and downloaded before leaving the house didn't work that great at all; it just kept buffering and we missed most of the talking points since it does use a location tracker and would just skip to where we were. However, they are right in that the road feels like a roller coaster at times. 

We were warned over and over by our app and all the sites I read that The ROAD IS the Destination so we took our time and enjoyed what sights we could see out the windows.  

We got out and did a short overlook hike at Waikamoi Ridge Trail:

I had a list of "must see" places but some of the stops mentioned we either couldn't find or ended up missing the turn but we adopted a real Hawaii Aloha spirit and just enjoyed the moment; seeing what we could and letting go of all expectation. 

Ian sat in the passenger seat and helped my husband navigate the hair pin turns while Evan and Alec sat in the middle row taking pictures out the window. I sat in the rear with my list and my app and tried to apprise everyone of what we were seeing out the window and where we were... 

a view of Ke'anae peninsula 

The 1/2 way point (but for us it was really just 1/3 of the way since we were going past Hana town to the other side of Haleakala national park). They are famous for their banana bread so my husband and Ian had to try it-- each buying their own mini loaf. The bananas on Hawaii are different and sweeter than on the mainland and they both loved their bread. 

Evan got shave ice and I think Alec got some ice cream.

We continued on:

Pua'a kaa state wayside park:

We stopped to explore the Hana lava tubes:

These lava tubes were well worth the stop (and admission price!); they ruined all the other ones we saw for the rest of our trip since these were far longer and larger. I couldn't snap photos inside since you know it's a cave and it's dark but it really was so neat to see in person. 

We made it to the national park and picked just one short trail to hike-- Ohe'o Gulch,  since we had to make it to our reservation at the black sand beach back towards Hana (and there are only 3 trails in this part of the park anyway; one of which takes 4 hours to hike round trip!). 

Banyan tree! 

Hala grove

hala trees that many mistake for pineapple trees... but they aren't

the seven pools were really dried up...

and the waterfall was down to a trickle. 

We got back in the car and found we were going to be over an hour early for our reserved parking time at the black sand beach so we went to check out Hamoa beach but even the road was really crowded so we drove on past.

We made an unplanned stop at Koki beach instead and I think that might have been one of my favorite stops! 

We watched the surfers and walked on the red sand beach. 

We also stopped in Hana town for a few minutes-- after all you can't say you went on the road to Hana and didn't actually go to Hana. It's a tiny little town but cute. 

We made it to Wai' anapanapa State Park (the only black sand beach on Maui) just as our reservation time started. It was so pretty but only one of us actually went in the water. I'm amazed at how cold the waters are and the undertow was intense... as were the waves.

There is an old private cemetery in the middle of the state park

We had more fun checking out the blowhole. 

We then drove back to where we started our day; not stopping any more than we needed to to let others cars pass in the hopes of making it out before nightfall-- and we did!

These are painted eucalyptus trees and while the photos aren't the best (taken from the moving car window) they are such amazing trees.

Sadly the arboretum on the road to Hana where you can see them up close was closed but later in the week we saw some at another botanical garden we went to.

We stopped for the best meal at Fuego Argentinian Steakhouse (our favorite meal on Maui!) on our way home. We all felt really underdressed for this place but the food and service was excellent. 

Others in this series:

Days 1 & 2 here

Linking up with: