One Week in Maui – Day 2 & 3

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December 8

Kapalua Coastal Trail

After a good night’s sleep at the quiet Mauian at Napili Bay we walked next door for a quick breakfast sandwich, bagel, fruit, and coffee at Island Vibes Cafe.  Food is good here, as is the counter service, but as with everything on Hawaii…expensive.  Nature of the Hawaiian beast. We also felt that when we bought a small tube of reef-safe sunscreen for $30…there was no choice as it was going to be a hot, sunny day and we were doing a trail with little to no shade.

From breakfast we walked to the trailhead for the terrific 2.5-mile round trip Kapalua Coastal Trail.  This is an easy trail for just about anybody. It starts on pavement adjacent to resorts, then meanders among the grassy oceanfront resort borders, and a dirt trail. It all offers amazing ocean and lava field coastal views.  We started the hike at 10:30 am.

Our target destination was the Dragon Teeth rock formation which is a short deviation near the end of the trail before turning back.  However, I really need water but we couldn’t find any along the trail.  So, we detoured about 1/4 mile to the nearby Ritz Carlton.  Of course, with a 1/4 mile walk there and back we couldn’t just get water and be on our way…no, not at a Ritz Carlton.  We decided to indulge in their gorgeous open air lounge with water for me, and a beer for Emilie.  It was rough!

Dragon’s Teeth

Pulling ourselves away from the swanky comfort of the Ritz we found our way back to the Dragon’s Teeth rock formation by the trail. It’s “by” the trail because to get to Dragon’s Teeth it requires going off the Kapalua Coastal Trail slightly, and onto Makaluapuna Point.  It’s all directly in front of the set back Ritz Carlton. This formation gets its name because the rocks along one side of the point jetting into the ocean resemble large stone teeth…very cool. It was hard to get good pics of the Dragon’s Teeth but the videos do a decent job.

As we were walking out onto the point we saw the cutest sea turtle swimming in the water.

While here we ventured further out onto Makaluapuna Point.

Napili Bay Beach

Backtracking along the Kapalua Coastal Trail we got back to Napili Bay around 1:30 pm.  We hit Island Vibes Cafe for lunch…our definitive go-to place for breakfast and lunch.

After lunch we grabbed some beach gear from our room and headed to hang out and swim on Napili Bay Beach, which is the beach in front of  our hotel.  A perfect beach day, we stayed here from 2:30-5:00 pm. This beach is more low-key and less crowded than many beaches on west Maui. The beautiful beach provides views of Molokai and Lana’i islands, and the ocean is swimmable. This was a great choice for the first half of the week on the island.

After the beach we walked 1/4 mile up the road to Kitchen 5315 Restaurant and Tiki Bar for dinner. This is a casual restaurant with very good Hawaiian bbq, and other food.

To digest we sat along the beachfront on the Mauian Hotel sitting wall enjoying the ocean waves and stars until bedtime.

Off to bed.

December 9

Nakalele Blowhole

Breakfast again at the wonderful Island Vibes Cafe.  Then we checked out of the wonderful Mauian Hotel.  We really enjoyed this low key beachfront resort, and the area.

The check-in time at the Maui Coast Hotel in Kihei isn’t until 4:00 pm so we spent the better part of this day driving up the northwest coast of Maui. Our target: Waihee Ridge Trail.

First stop at 11:15 a.m. was the Nakalele Blowhole about 15 minutes away. This is a busy tourist stop. There were lots of people making the 15-minute trek from the crowded parking lot to the blowhole. It was not an easy trek, however. With so many tourists it looked like there would be a smooth boardwalk, or easy, level trail. It was actually lava rocky and hilly with several beaten pathways, none of which was easier than the other, or recommended. We stopped about 50 yards from the blowhole at a nice vantage point.

If we had never seen anything like this, then we would have gone down all the way. We saw little benefit getting any closer at the cost of traversing jagged lava rock.  A good stop, just not as exciting as we had hoped. The rugged coastal scenery was fantastic, but we were not overly impressed with the blowhole itself. The Spouting Horn blowhole near Poipu Beach on Kauai was more dramatic, actually.

Ohai Loop Trail

Back in the car we headed further north on Route 340. In about 20 minutes we came upon the Ohai Loop Trail. This is an easy 1.25-mile dirt trail loop along the coast. This stroll allowed for some more gorgeous coastal views, but even better is there were only a few other people here. Seems like a hidden gem. It is supposedly a good place for whale watching, but we were about one month too early for that…but of course we still looked for them.  We were here for about 45 minutes, until about 12:30 p.m.

Kahekili Highway

Continuing north towards our targeted trailhead we slowly came to realize that this road north, the Kahekili Highway gets quite harrowing! We’re not sure how we missed the memo on this road given the research we had been doing about Maui. The constant drop-offs and blind hairpin turns were challenging enough, but there were several stretches of one-lane road for the two-way traffic. Meeting cars going the other way requires one car to back up along this winding, narrow road without guardrails until a reasonable turnout was had. There was very little margin for error.

We had some close encounters, and at one point we caught up to two stopped cars waiting for a car coming the other way as it backed up to let us through. This Kahekili Highway is definitely more dangerous than the more famous Road to Hana. A guy we met at the hotel pool later this day told us that locals don’t even drive this unless they absolutely have to. This is probably why we didn’t encounter many other cars. Most people who head to the Waihee Ridge Trail come up Route 340 from Kahului on the north east side of the island, not from the side we came from.

Along the way we hit one small bastion of civilization in Wailuku with an art gallery, a few homes…one selling banana bread and drinks. We stopped here, at the very rustic Lorraine Shave Ice. Lorraine operates this oasis out of her home.

This was an opportunity for Emilie to get a break from this harrowing drive, and to grab some freshly baked banana bread, and  water for the impending hike. Lorraine was very nice, and she just pulled some hot banana bread out of the oven from her house. We also got a nice view as we ate our bread…and regained our nerves!

Waihee Ridge Trail

Not long after the Lorraine pitstop, at around 2:00 p.m. we arrived at the Waihee Ridge Trail trailhead…we survived the Kahekili Highway! This is a 4-mile out and back inland hike.

The first 1/4 mile of the hike is brutally steep up a concrete path, then it becomes just normally steep, then it levels off to just plain old steep.

However, the scenery on this hike is spectacular. The series of vertical razorback ridgelines amongst the various lush green mountainsides cleaved by valleys is reminiscent of the Na Pali coast of Kauai. This is some of my personal favorite landscape, so I was thrilled by this hike. Emilie also enjoyed it quite a bit. There were about 10 other people that we saw on this hike.

There were also some waterfall views.

We hiked 1.6-miles of the 2.1-miles out, then decided to head back. It was starting to sprinkle, and we didn’t want to get caught descending this fairly steep dirt trail when wet. We were also concerned about driving back in the dark. According to All-Trails reviews, the remaining half-mile of the trail would not offer a unique reward, so back we went.  We finished the 3.2-mile hike at 3:30 p.m.

When heading back near the car, we discussed that we were probably better off continuing around the north side of the island rather than retrace our harrowing drive here along the Kahekili Highway. This was thankfully validated by Apple Maps!

At 5:15 p.m. we made it to the Maui Coast Hotel in Kihei, on the southwest part of the island. Just before hitting the hotel we drove past it about 1-mile to recon our meeting spot for the next morning’s snorkel tour.

This hotel was excellent, though very different from the one in Napili Bay. This is far more upscale with more amenities. It’s across the street from several beaches and very well staffed. We enjoyed the two pools and 3 hot tubs, as well as the view from our 4th floor balcony.

This area of Maui is also quite active and built up with resorts and retail plazas, etc. So, it doesn’t have the rustic, low key tropical charm of the Napili Bay area we stayed the prior two nights, or of Kauai. This active stretch of Maui is reminiscent of the Waikiki area of Oahu.

We spent the evening, with dinner, by the pool. It was a nice relaxing unwind after a day of treacherous, yet scenic driving, and great hiking. We also took a quick look at the beach across the street from the hotel…though I had my swimsuit on, it would not have been wise to go in the ocean here at night. We settled for some pool and hot tub time.

Off to bed.

Next: One Week in Maui – Day 4 & 5