Drive, hike, dinner!

We had a big day planned today. We were driving the backside of the island to hike in Haleakala National Park and then Jennifer and Brian were going to continue on to spend a night in Hana while Jason and I headed back to Lahaina to have dinner with friends who were also visiting the islands. And since we'd both done the road to Hana as kids, neither of us wanted to do it again. =)


So we packed a lunch and took our time driving the long road along the coast watching the terrain change drastically. It was just amazing and beautiful as the place changed from lush and green, to dry and reddish brown. The road is a great, leisurely drive and will take you at least 2.5 hours from Kihei.

The Haleakala National Park is where you can find some amazing hikes, breathtaking waterfalls, and The Seven Sacred Pools. Depending on the day however, they may not allow visitors down to the pools for safety reasons. On the day we were there, they kept visitors out due to previous rain and possible rain that day. The area is prone to flash floods so it's best to view them from afar when it's wet out.

After viewing the pools, we headed upward for a long hike through amazing environments. The first brief stop was at Makahiku Falls. It's beautiful and can be viewed from a distance. If you're not a big hiker you can stop there but I encourage people to keep going to the end where you can view the Waimoku Falls. Along the way there are many more breathtaking places that are more than picture worthy.

Further up the Pipiwai Trail is an enormous banyan tree. There were actually people who managed to climb up into it while we were there. It's incredible just to walk in among the roots.





Continuing up the trail and crossing a bridge, we arrived at the opening of the Bamboo Forest. This entire mountain is thickly covered with bamboo that stretches as far as the eye can see. There is a path cut into the bamboo and the park has laid down a walkway to keep above the damp bamboo leaves and dirt along most of the way. Hiking along here is so peaceful and it's like stepping into another world. At the end of this trail are the Waimoku Falls. It's 400 feet up and the biggest waterfall on Maui. And once you're there, it's a huge sense of accomplishment.

Unfortunately, we couldn't hang around too long as we had to make it back to town for dinner and we needed to get cleaned up before that! So we said goodbye to our friends and booked it back down the hill in record time then drove back in record time. We got to enjoy a great dinner at Kimo's in Lahaina. Beautiful view, great food, good friends. We're looking forward to just having a chill beach day tomorrow before picking Brian and Jennifer up at the car rental place.