The Road to Hana, Maui
If you’re just tuning in, I’m finishing up posts of the beauty I experienced on my spring break trip to Maui with my high school friends Samantha and Shara. Near the end of our trip, Samantha and I took a day to explore the Road to Hana on Maui (Shara and Mike have done that trip quite a few times, so they sat this one out). Sadly, the weather didn’t cooperate with us for spectacular blue sky photos, but it was still a memorable day exploring such a gorgeous area.
The Road to Hana is a remarkable road full of twists and turns and over 45 one-lane bridges (which usually coincided with a beautiful waterfall right next to it) that leads to the town of Hana on the east side of Maui. It took a few hours to get to our destination, Kipahulu in Haleakala National Park, with many stops along the way to enjoy the gorgeous beaches, waterfalls, and other unique sights.
The end of our trip (before we took the road back in the evening) included a four mile hike through the National Park (and a breathtaking bamboo forest) in POURING rain (hence the lack of amazing bamboo and waterfall photos since I wanted my camera to survive) to Waimoku Falls. They were pretty spectacular, especially with all the recent rain to make them more powerful… totally worth the rainstorm hike. As Sam and I lamented the weather initially, we decided to embrace the day we were given and the chance to make so many memories. Check out the sights below!
Taro fields
The Three Bears falls
Three Bears Falls
Just a random waterfall seen on the side of the road during our drive. I almost got tired of them!
An entrance into some lava tubes that we explored. We were thankful to run into people with flashlights… it was dark in there!
Inside the lava tubes.
Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach
Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach
A different perspective of Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach
Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach
A blow hole in action at Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach
I sort of enjoyed taking photos here. 🙂
Near Hana- this was the non-treacherous part of the hike to the red sand beach.
Red Sand Beach on Kaihalulu Bay
Red Sand Beach on Kaihalulu Bay
Red Sand Beach on Kaihalulu Bay
Red Sand Beach on Kaihalulu Bay
Red Sand Beach on Kaihalulu Bay- I love the red and turquoise.
With one of many waterfalls along the road.
Pools of ‘Ohe’o (aka Seven Sacred Pools) inside the National Park
On the hike on Pipiwai Trail
The best pic I could get of the bamboo forest on Pipiwai Trail- if it wasn’t for the rain, I’d have some really gorgeous pics from there.
After a two mile hike in the pounding rain, this was our reward- Waimoku Falls.
Proof that we made it (taken with the camera I’m less attached to).
The “trail” on the way back. There was a lot of rain that day (taken with the camera I was ok with drenching) .
On the hike back
After our four mile hike in pouring rain, the sky finally decided to do this before the sunset. 🙂
Sunrise to Sunset in Maui
Welcome to another day from my trip in Maui. This one happened to be a very long and full day. We work up around 3:30 A.M. to head up to the Haleakala summit to watch the sunrise. My friends who live there have seen much more spectacular displays of the sun rising over the clouds, but I was content to see the sun break through a few times. I was amazed at how different the landscape is up by the Haleakala Crater… it eerily felt a bit like Mars up there! On the way down the mountain we saw a rainbow… there’s a reason Hawaii is known as the Rainbow State!
Since we were already on that side of the island, we decided to explore a couple of the early stops on the Road to Hana (I’ll be doing a separate post on our Road to Hana journey which happened the day after this one). We stopped to see the rainbow bark on some eucalyptus trees and then we explored a bamboo forest. Both sites were really beautiful.
That evening, Shara and I decided to go to a beach not too far from their place in hopes that there would be a pretty sunset. God didn’t disappoint us at Keawakapu Beach near Wailea. Check out His beautiful creation as seen on this great day in Maui back in March!
Shara, Mike and I waiting for the sun to rise on the Haleakala Summit. It was cold at 10,000 feet (hence the reason Sam was staying warm in the overlook shelter).
The sunlight starting to peek through over the Haleakala crater.
Good morning!
Standing on top of the world!
Here I am near near the summit with the rest of Maui below.
The Haleakala Observatory
A Haleakala Silversword plant
It’s a really unique plant- check out more info on Wikipedia.
On the way down from the summit.
Rainbow State!
The Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta)
This was on the other side of the hill by the rainbow eucalyptus trees… the coast was everywhere. Got to love islands! (Thanks for this shot of me, Mike!)
A closeup of the bark
Entering the bamboo forest off of the Hana highway.
Exploring with Samantha and Mike ahead.
I love this.
We happened upon this little waterfall in the bamboo forest. It had been raining a lot recently. 🙂
The view from the road
The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
Shara let me borrow her tripod for this shot- The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
Shara let me borrow her tripod for this shot- The sunset at Keawakapu Beach
Such a great evening hanging out with Shara. Can’t believe we’ve been friends for twenty-two years now!
jenni mansell photography 