One Week in Maui – Day 1

Next: One Week in Maui – Day 2 & 3

December 7

Road to Hana (part 1)

Ho’okipa

Our Hawaiian Airlines flight landed in Maui from Kauai at 11:15 a.m. We picked up our Thrifty Jeep Compass rental at the airport and headed out to explore the island for the afternoon. Check-In for the Mauian on Napili Bay wasn’t until 4:00 p.m. so we had some time to tool around a bit first. Em and I had been to Kauai, Oahu, and the big island of Hawaii, but this is our first time on Maui, so we’re pretty excited to be here.

We had read that doing the famed Road to Hana, and seeing most of the popular things could take up to 10 hours roundtrip so the plan today was to do a chunk of it (along the Hana Highway) so that on the day later in the week when we would be driving all the way to Hana, we would have more time to see and do things, such as visiting the black sand beach at Waiʻānapanapa State Park.

We decided that our target along the Road to Hana would be the Waikamoi Ridge Nature Trail about 25 miles from the airport down the Hana Highway. We planned to stop at overlooks and anything that seemed interesting so that we could bypass these when we did the whole Road to Hana in a few days.

About 15 minutes from the airport we hit our first stop, the Ho’okipa Lookout. This is a very popular spot for both its overlook and the beach below.  On this stop we opted to just do the overlook…we would check out the lower beach and sea turtle scene later in the week. The overlook has a decent amount of parking, which was mostly full. This would be our first scenic experience on the island of Maui…and it did not disappoint! The black lava cliffs and rocks thrashed by the gorgeous blue ocean below made for stunning viewing. At first, we thought that people were restricted to the high point along the perimeter of the parking area, but we discovered an authorized walking path down toward the rocks on the far right side. This allowed us to get down closer to the water.

Topping it off were the surfers below!

After about 20 minutes we got back in the car and continued along the Road to Hana.  Ten miles on we came across Twin Falls.  This is probably the most popular stop along the Road to Hana from what we have read. However on this day, and every second Sunday of the month, this privately owned farmland with swimmable waterfalls is open only to residents of Hawaii…we shall return!

Huelo Lookout

The hiking trail we were heading to is about 8 miles beyond Twin Falls.  But beyond Twin Falls the Road to Hana begins to earn its reputation as a challenging winding and narrow road. So, the 8 miles takes a while.  We also started seeing the first of many homemade “Let Locals Pass” signs posted along the road.  A few miles on we made a pit stop at a roadside food stand oasis.  It would be easy to miss the Huelo Lookout Fruit Stand but luckily, we didn’t!  This small shed offers smoothies, banana bread, and lots of other treats…plus a great lush ocean view behind the stand.

The young woman at the Huelo fruit stand told us about a place about 2 miles up where there were “rainbow” trees, and a waterfall. So, on the lookout we came upon a bunch of cars parked alongside the road so we pulled over to check it out.  The cars, on the right side of the road were adjacent to a heavily wooded and somewhat difficult, wet dirt trail down a small ravine to a waterfall. It was quite jungle-like and tropical.  Though, it appeared that the difficulty and time it required wasn’t worth the reward of the awkwardly situated small waterfall so we took a picture and headed back to find the rainbow trees.

The “rainbow” trees are actually eucalyptus trees.  We found them across the street about 50 yards up from the waterfall trail. They have stripes of colors like brushstrokes of paint along its smooth bark, with very large, thick branches…they really are remarkable, and well worth the stop. We are grateful to the woman at the Huelo Lookout fruit stand, because we may have completely missed these if we were not told about them. Another gem along the Road to Hana.

Waikamoi Ridge Nature Trail

At around 2:00 pm we made it to the Waikamoi Ridge Nature Trail.  This is a fairly easy 2-mile round trip hike through old growth forest and some amazing dense stretches of lime green bamboo.  We had never seen forest like this…the lime green colors and moss match that of some hikes in the Hoh rain forest in Washington, but the bamboo here is unique, and beautiful.

We could hear water all along this hike, but we never actually saw any water…it seemed to always be just beyond us.  This was a nice introductory hike though nothing really special, other than the very cool stretch of bamboo. We saw only two other people on the hike.

At around 2:45 we were in the car and heading back where we came from along the Road to Hana toward the Mauian Hotel at Napili Bay in Kapalua, just north of Lahaina. We got to the Mauian around 4:45 p.m.  This quaint, boutique hotel was just right.  It’s not in a bustling section of Maui, but it is on the beach and walking distance to the things we wanted to do here for the next two days.

We walked the grounds of the hotel and found our way to the nearby, upscale Sea House restaurant right on the beach. The restaurant is part of the Napili Kai Beach Resort next door. We enjoyed a nice filet mignon early bird special dinner at the bar, with an awesome view, and sunset over Lanai.

After dinner we just hung out around the beach for a bit, then called it a day…it was an early night given that were up early to catch our flight to Maui.

Next: One Week in Maui – Day 2 & 3