It was our second visit to the Island of Maui. The ocean swell pretty much washed out our plans to enjoy snorkeling, and the tail end of the whale season found us mainly witnessing an occasional puff of humpback whales swimming back home to Alaska with their calves. However, we were blessed with excellent weather on the land. Sunshine when we needed it and just enough rain to have plenty of water in the waterfalls.
We did "Road to Hana" a few times. It is a 53 mile single lane road that hugs the rugged coastline passing over many a one lane bridges, waterfalls and rain-forest on the way. It is helpful to get an audio CD to guide you during the journey. We were most interested in taking trails and visiting/swimming in the water-falls.
We visited the following water falls.
Twin Falls : Mile Marker 2 (near a fruit smoothie stand). The trail is about 30 min long and requires you to cross a stream and climb a few stairs. There is a rope swing at the falls.
Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park: Between Mile-marker 22 and 23. A well marked parking lot where you can pull your car in. Walk across the street for a couple of minutes to a small 20 foot waterfall with a swimming hole. Very nice and safe entry to the pool under the fall.
The other two water-falls were actually beyond the town of Hana in Haleakala National Park.
Ohe'o Gulch : A short walk on a marked trail from the visitor center leads to cascading falls and a series of pools finally emptying into the ocean. We went to the first falls. Watch out for slippery stones and help yourself to bamboo sticks that people before you have left.
Waimoku Falls: This is a 400foot fall. The trail is about 2 miles each way taking you through thick bamboo forests. We saw a variety of interesting vegetation along the way including a banyan tree, mango trees, ginger plants and guava trees. There were some ripe guavas that we enjoyed too along the way. The trail ends at the waterfall. It took us about 3 hours for the round trip with plenty of breaks for taking pictures along the trail. The trail is known as "Pipwai trail".
Waimoku Falls (2 mile Pipwai Trail at Haeakala National Park)
The picture is not doing justice to the falls. They are a lot more beautiful that the picture shows.
Ohe'o Gulch ( Haleakala National Park)
Pua'a Ka'a State Park Falls
Twin Falls
Other interesting vistas along the Hana Highway:
Taro Fields at Keana'e. About half way to road to Hana, there is a turnout right next to the yellow Tsunami sirens. This is where you can pull out for a view of village of Keana'e with taro fields.
Taro Fields in Keana'e
We actually drove down to the village of Keana'e (there is a road going down near the arboretum). It winds through the small village leading to a oceanside parking lot overlooking a church built from coral.
Keanae Congregational Church
Our rental car, Chrysler HHR at Keanae
Our rental car, Chrysler HHR at KeanaeA memorable view from Pipwai trail leading to the Waimoku falls. The bamboo forest will shade you from sun and protect you from rain to some extent. It was one of the most interesting trails we have ever taken.
