Do Go Chasing Waterfalls

Scoffing at the advice dispensed by TLC in the 90's, Karen and I chose to chase the many waterfalls on the Northern and Eastern end of Maui on the "Road to Hana." This famed highway (more like a curvy sometimes two-lane road) has been touted as one of the best roads in the US. The road to Hana is only 30+ miles long, but can take 2-3 hours to complete, depending on traffic, the number of stops you make, and the weather. Hana is on the windward side of the island, so it was to be expected that we would encounter some showers along the way. I suppose it is a good thing there is a lot of rain, because with the rain, several waterfalls appear. Once again, we awoke early to set out on our journey. After stopping to fill up for gas in Kahului we were on our way. The road from Kahului to Paia was pretty normal, but a couple of miles afterward, we were warned by a sign noting "Narrow, Winding Road for next 30 miles." I thought that the sign may be overstating things a little, but the road lived up to its reputation. There were plenty of blind curves, one-lane bridges, and narrow roads to contend with. The picture above shows the road cut into the side of the mountain. Not a lot of room for error with a cliff on one side and the ocean on the other.

Besides the challenging, yet fun highway, the one of the main reasons for traveling the Hana Highway is to see the lush jungle and the many resulting waterfalls. It seemed that at almost every bend inside the mountain a waterfall of some size would come cascading down the hill. Some of the waterfalls created beautiful pools to swim in, while others raged beneath the road below. On the way to Hana, Karen was itching to get into the water. We found a very swimmable pool, but a sign next to it informed us that water collected from this stream was used for drinking purposes and swimming was not allowed. That definitely made us both a little sad, but we pressed on. A little further down the road, I decided to stop at a state park, which the guide book only had so-so things to say about it. We crossed back over the stream and went up a trail and to our surprise, we found a little pool. I encouraged Karen to swim in it, knowing that if this was her only chance to take a plung, she better do so. After some coaxing, she hopped in and played around in the pool for a few minutes. Karen was certainly glad she took the opportunity to play in the water.

The road continued to twist and turn with ups and downs. We took a side detour to the town of Nihuku, which was down a one-lane twisty road. After a couple of miles, it dead-ended into the ocean. The view was awesome and was as close to paradise as we have found on Maui. To enjoy the moment longer, we ate a sandwich in between rain squalls. Our next scheduled stop on the tour would be a state park, where we were told we could find caves to swim in.

Sure enough, the guide book was not wrong. There were caves available; however, we were a bit disappointed when we first arrived. The first pool we saw was pretty shallow and there was a lot of debris floating around. Karen went for a short swim, but we heard rumors of a better swimming at a different spot, so we decided to check it out. The next freshwater cave was all that we had hoped for and more--it had a beautiful pool to swim in as well as lots of large and small cave around to swim into. The ceiling of the cave was all different colors, and you could swim pretty far into them if you didn't mind not being able to see what was around you. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. When we got back to the car and consulted our guidebook (thanks again, Nicole!), we saw that the authors suggested that only one of the pools was suitable for swimming. Oh, well!

The only negative part of the day came at the end of the road, after we had passed Hana. At that point, the road really turned into a one-lane road. That is, only one car could pass through at a time. It did not mean, however, that cars traveled only one way on the road, so we had some tough squeezes, especially with locals taking their trucks through at 30 mph and not slowing down a bit when passing another car (us!). We arrived at our final stop, a national park that offered waterfalls that you could run through and play in, which we had been looking forward to as our reward for the drive. Once we got to the park though (and AFTER we paid the entrance fee), the ranger casually informed us that there was no swimming allowed today because the water was too swift and dangerous. Since this was the whole reason we had come this far, we were disappointed, although we were still able to see the waterfall and were happy to support our national park system.

To ease our pain, we bought and (Karen) polished off a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread on the way home. We also stopped at an amazing waterfall on the way back where Karen was able to fulfill her dream of swimming in a waterfall pool (again). This time, water cascaded down over 100 feet onto her, unlike the previous falls, which fell about 10 feet. We stopped to enjoy some beautiful views on the way back home. I especially liked the cows grazing in a pasture by the ocean at sunset, proving that happy cows don't come ONLY from California. The other wildlife, and especially birds and chickens, also provided me with some entertainment along the way.