timistravels

11/21/13

Some people say this drive is not worth it, we could not DISAGREE more, we LOVE this drive.  I do say however, if you are prone to car sickness simply offer to drive.  I have driven it 2 x’s and would recommend it to anyone visiting Maui.  I am sure this won’t be the last time we drive it.

The beauty starts off almost immediately.  At the 2 mile mark there is the busiest hike of the road, and is certainly a fun easy hike into a waterfall and pool.   At about the 6 mile mark when you see the Rainbow Eucalyptus Forest on your left.  After leaving there, continue along the highway slowing at each bridge to #1 make sure no one is coming the other way and #2 (an most important) to see if there are any waterfalls in these valleys.  Sadly during this trip there had not been much rain in recent history, so a lot of the river beds were dry.

At 19 mile you will see the Three Bear Falls, though again, if there has not been much rain they will not be flowing as much as they will during the wet season.   Wailuaiki Falls is located near the 21 mile marker, but it can be very hard to find a place to park around here, though we parked up hill and walked back down to view them.  Some of the best falls are up near mile markers 43 an 45.   However, the highlight of our day was once we arrived to the National Park and decided to hike the 2 miles up and through the Oheo Gulch to the Waimoku Falls.  The 2nd mile of the trail is mostly going through bamboo forests which in itself is interesting.  It is 400 feet tall and the tallest falls on Maui.  We took a dip in the pool in front of it.  

Once we were back at the Park Service area we decided to walk towards the ocean (below the main road) to view the  Seven Sacred Pools.  There are many falls along this short walk and of course pools that you can swim in and cool down after hot hikes!

During our day we also did 2 other highlights that are noteworthy.  We stopped at the Lava Tube (caves) which were worth the $12.50 entry fee.  There are a lot of interpretive signs and I feel I learned a lot while walking through the cave.  It is fascinating how it was formed.

Lastly as a highlight to the day we stopped at Nutcharee’s Thai Food in Hana.  We have had a lot of Thai food and traveled in Thailand for a month, so we can be a bit picky, let me tell you this was authentic and so worth stopping by to eat.  We had the 2 specials of the day, red curry with chicken and an extra special treat, fresh ahi and green curry.  No words can describe how good the green curry ahi was.  The ahi melted in my mouth.

The only bummer of the day is that we ran out of time.  We ended up driving back on the Hana Highway in the dark missing so much of the beauty that we viewed on the way down to Hana.