Day 2 of our Hana Adventure Extraordinaire began with an absolutely glorious sunrise – since our body clocks had yet to fully adjust to Hawaii time, we were up in plenty of time to see it. We decided rather than check out and leave Hana directly, we had time to drive west up the…
The long day ended with our return to Hana and a walk up to Fagan’s Cross, a local landmark placed by one of the area’s earliest cattle ranchers atop a prominent hill overlooking the town and serviced by a trailhead that also serves a community walking trail. It looked like we could combine the two paths…
We decided to continue exploring the area around Hana after checking into our hotel and cleaning up. It was early in the evening and our hotel room was a studio condo with a full kitchen – we had brought food to cook for dinner, so we figured we had time for a couple of more hikes…
Our hiking guidebook noted some oft-overlooked pools located not far from the road back to Hana, so we wanted to pay these a visit after returning from Waimoku Falls – the roadside trailhead was fairly obvious from the 8-10 cars parked against the fenceline along the road (which was also a bit discouraging as…
We’ve quickly discovered that Maui has many micro-climates and diverse ecosystems, and this hike was our first foray into a true jungle environment. The Kipahulu area of Haleakala National Park is on the southeast coast of the island, where lava flows from the volcano have been eroded by water into patterns of deep gorges…
We got up early Sunday morning (again – we have even yet to fully adjust to Hawaii time) and hit the Road to Hana – we got a hotel room in Hana for the night, so instead of driving the road and back in one day, our plan was to do it in two. We…
D.T. Fleming State Beach is on a lovely cove just east of the Kapalua resort, and the two are separated by a long, narrow spit of lava called Makaluapana Point. The resort is famous for its two golf courses, and there are paths through the resort itself that run out to the tip of…
A few miles west of Nakalele Point lies Lipoa Point, reached via an easy hike across old pineapple fields now covered in tall grasses. There was a golf course here in the 1930s, but it was abandoned decades ago and only a few building foundations remain. Our directions cited the trailhead as at the…
After checking out the petroglyphs in Olowalu, we continued north through Lahaina and past the resorts of Kaanapali and Kapalua – our goal was to start at the northernmost tip of Maui at Nakalele Point and do several hikes, each one successively closer to Lahaina on the west coast. The road past Kapalua narrows…
We intended to spend the day exploring the northwest side of Maui, planning to head up the coast through Lahaina, Kaanapali, and Kapalua. Along the highway southeast of Lahaina is the Olowalu Store, a local landmark, and behind that is a gravel road leading to a cultural preservation site containing ancient petroglyphs. We parked at…