Monday, June 24
Compass…check.
Fresh water…check.
First-aid kit…check.
Emergency signal flares…check.
Road map…check.
Emergency Maui Onion chips…check.
We set out early Monday morning on an adventure into the deepest part of the Maui jungle. An adventure that would take us beyond the reaches of civilization (i.e. no McDonald’s in sight). We were driving the
Hana Highway.
And we had to leave early in order to beat the traffic beyond the reach of civilization.
If you’ve never heard of the Hana Highway, it’s one of the more infamous roads in the U.S. It’s 52 miles from Kahului to the town of Hana on the east coast of Maui, and it takes 2.5 hours to drive (without stops). The road travels all along the northern and eastern edges of Haleakala, and is carved right into the side of the mountain, through the lush jungle and along the edge of the ocean. The statistics vary depending on your source, but there are approximately 620 curves and 50 or so one-lane bridges on the drive. And that’s the well-maintained portion of the drive.
I found this aerial photo of the road online to give you an idea of what the drive is like:
I also found a helpful map of the road that was
obviously drawn by a highly skilled cartographer.
We set out about 7:30-ish in the morning from Kula and drove northeast through the town of Makawao to get to the Hana Highway. The drive starts off gently enough, but you only have to go a mile or two before the turns start. And once they start, they never stop. Here’s a typical one-lane bridge we crossed along the way:
(cue Indiana Jones music)
Part of the reason for starting early was to avoid running into traffic coming the other way and having to constantly stop at these bridges. In the morning, most traffic is heading east to Hana.
Most traffic, that is, except for the delivery trucks. Which happen to be driving by natives of Maui who have done this drive hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Which means they know the road in their sleep. Which means they come barreling around the blind turns on the edge of a cliff at 30-40 mph when you least expect them. We encountered a few of these trucks coming around a corner on the way and it never failed to get the heart pumping.
If you can manage to tear your eyes off the road for a second or two, you might notice that the drive is actually quite beautiful. This is the windward side of the island, so it gets most of the rain and with it the abundant flowers and waterfalls you might expect in a tropical paradise. There are many turnouts and pull-offs along the way so you can get out and enjoy the scenic views of the coastline.
Of course, sometimes you have to park at a turnout and then hike back along the road to see a waterfall or some scenic point, which is really fun when the psychotic dump truck drivers are careening around looking for fresh victims.
We basically followed the advice of our guidebook in choosing where to stop. There were several waterfalls along the way, right by the road and easy to see. The book even mentioned that “Maui may be the only place in the world where it’s possible to get waterfall fatigue”.
This is a waterfall that was right next to a one-lane bridge and was referred to as Three Bears Falls. Yes, it also had a Hawaiian name, but I can’t remember what it was and probably couldn’t spell it anyway.
Another scenic overlook showed us the Keanae Peninsula:
I was thrilled to get these stops along the way, because white-knuckling the steering wheel around hairpin turns is exhausting. The brakes got a considerable workout as well as we constantly rolled down steep grades, slowed for turns and one-lane sections, and crept around corners looking for maniacal truck drivers. The road would follow a boomerang shape into each valley—we’d drive down into it, turn 180 degrees, then drive back out, ad infinitum. Here’s a good shot to show how steeply the road was cut into the mountainside:
Don’t worry, there were occasional guardrails along the way.
Our kids enjoy being entertained with DVD’s or games during long car rides, and truth be told, we enjoy the drive when they’re being entertained too. But we didn’t have our portable DVD player and Dave can be prone to motion sickness when staring at screens in the back seat. So they asked for some music instead. We considered all of the available options on the FM dial to be found on the Hana highway and then plugged in my iPod.
My iPod has a very, very eclectic mix of music on it. Sometimes we like to just hit “shuffle” and see what randomly pops up. You might get a blast of John Williams’ Star Wars theme followed by Bono, still unable to find what he was looking for, followed by Beethoven’s Ode To Joy followed by Jon Bon Jovi telling you to have a nice day. At some point during our drive, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite began to play. The waltz tempo oddly fit right in with the way I was driving the road: “Left, two , three, right, two, three, left, two three…”
…and then Scotty happened.
Scotty: “Daddy, why do they call it the Nutcracker?”
Daddy: “Don’t you see how hard it is to drive? Oh, do you mean the music?”
We got a kick out of the signs and stripes at this parking area:
There was one really cool bridge that was actually directly over a waterfall (thanks again to the guidebook for alerting us to this spot). You could stand on the bridge and look directly down:
Doesn’t look like much? Here we are on top of it:
That bridge looks pretty stable, don’t you think?
Eventually we reached a side road about 10 miles from Hana that led us to
Wai’anapanapa State Park. Try saying that one 3 times real fast. Wai’anapanapa means “glistening fresh water” in Hawaiian, although a case could be made for the translation “causes spell-checker to have an aneurysm.” Our reason for taking this side trip, other than to see if Julie would have a hernia trying to pronounce it as she gave directions, was that this was the best place for us to see a black sand beach.
Black sand beaches are formed when the ocean hits lava rock on the edge of the coast. Over time, the waves batter and pulverize the rock until it is worn down to sandy particles. Unfortunately, this process will eventually erode the lava rock away over time until there is nothing left, and the black sand beach will eventually disappear. So book your flights now!
We took a short hike along the edge of the coast down to the beach. Bonus: no parking fee here!
We reached the beach and let the kids walk on black sand for the first time in their lives. Judging by the picture, the entire horizon tilted on its axis. We didn’t notice at the time. I mean, hey, the sand is black!
There was another trail that led up the other ridge around the inlet, so we walked up to check out the view.
It’s a little hard to see, but there’s a rock arch out there.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. It just screams “Hawaii” to me.
Right next to the beach was a small tunnel through the rock. If you’re ever there, I bet you won’t be able to resist exploring it, either.
There was a hole in the tunnel roof that we were calling a “Hidden Mickey”, but I think it’s really more of a “Hidden Texas Longhorn”.
Continued Next Post
I guess the good news is that come January I move out and their financial situation is no longer my problem. My student loans, however.......
for student loans.
Soooo close...
I will tell you what... that bridge does NOT look stable! 
But what a cool shot!
