Road to Hana

The famous "road to Hana" is more accurately the road that goes around the right (eastern) "half" of the island. It leads to Hana (a small town on the East coast) but does not stop there. You can most certainly go a little bit past Hana, to get to Ohe'o Gulch, or "Seven Sacred Pools" (also very famous). Soon after that, the road becomes an unpaved one-lane and continues like this for several miles; then it becomes decent again and ultimately connects to one of the interior roads leading to the north coast, thus letting you complete the circle. There are conflicting opinions on whether you are allowed to drive the unpaved portion in your rental car; having done it as an unwilling passenger of my very determined husband I have even more serious doubts as to the advisability of this course of action. The unpaved portions are very dusty and VERY, VERY bumpy. Do not undertake it unless you are comfortable driving backward along a narrow road, as in when you meet another car going in the opposite direction on one of the one-lane stretches.

Still, I am going to write about the trip we did, the way we did it, and you can then custom-tailor that experience to suit your needs.

We started very-very early. At 6:30 am, to be exact. Getting up at 5 was not much fun, but it paid off in the end. Also, the whole drive took 14 hours, including the side trip to the top of Mt. Haleakala in conclusion, to see the sunset. The reason for the early start, even aside from the sunset (which can just as easily be done separately, on another day), is to make the first part of the drive while the road is still empty. This way everybody, including the driver, gets to enjoy the beauty of the narrow, winding road among the lush greenery, with sideways glimpses of the ocean hitting the rocks, and drive it at your own pace - instead of being stuck in an endless procession of cars that develops after 8 am.

For the same reason, we did not stop much along the first part of our trip. If you try to do it all in one day, there is absolutely no way to manage to fit everything  that the guidebook mentions, so you have to pick and choose. We did stop at a couple of waterfalls in the beginning that seemed like low-hanging fruit (just a few steps from the car to take a picture) and I cannot say that I regret these stops, but they were totally forgettable compared to the rest. I didn't even post these photos.

The first truly interesting stop was the lava tube. Just like Andrew says, park in the second turnout after the 23 mile marker. The turnout is on the left (ocean) side of the road, and the entrance to the lava tube (which looks like a cave) is across the road, on the mauka (mountain) side. You will need a flashlight or something similar (we used Temma's iPod :) ), otherwise it's quite dark inside.

The cave, being a tube, eventually lets you out the other end, among the roots of a banyan tree. Lava tubes are formed when lava, flowing like a river, crusts over the top. Lava tubes can be over 20 miles long, but this one is relatively short, just 140 feet. Once you get out, follow the trail back to the road; no need to get back in the cave to return to your car.

When we got back to our car, I was very excited to find a wild Red Junglefowl hen walking around it. The hen was in no hurry to leave, so I managed to take a few pictures. Later, I realized that is was probably expecting us to feed it some banana bread, because there are plenty of fruit-and-banana-bread stands all along the road to Hana. However, since we tried not to waste any time on roadside stops during the first part of our trip, we didn't have any banana bread to share at this point...

We stopped soon afterwards, though, because we were getting hungry, and got 2 different kinds of banana bread (pineapple and macadamia nut), a jar of liliko'i (passion fruit) jam - all delicious - and also a weird vegetable, called chayote squash, which you can either cook like a potato or add to salads like a cucumber, both with unspectacular results (as we discovered later). Well, at least we tried...

Our next stop was Wai'anapanapa State Park, famous for its black sand beach. There are other things to see and do there (photos 64 - 69). My absolute favorite is swimming in a freshwater cave. There are 2 freshwater caves there, accessible via a short loop-trail; if you travel it in the recommended direction (clockwise) then the first cave you see is the one that's good for swimming. It is quite easy to climb down the stone "steps" to the water. The cave goes back a ways; make sure not to turn any corners and always keep the entrance in sight, so you can get back to it. The water is cool and refreshing, and the sunlight reflections playing on the stone ceiling and walls are impossibly beautiful.

The black sand beach, on the other hand, is not that good for swimming (although the guidebooks say it's possible). So, after looking at sea arches and blowholes, and eating our sandwiches (which we packed for the road) we pressed on towards Hana and THE RED SAND BEACH! I'll make it into a separate post, mostly because the guidebook is pathetically inadequate in explaining how to get there. Here is just one photo to show what a treat it is. For more photos and detailed directions on how to get there, look here.

Immediately past Hana, there are a couple other beaches that sound like they are worth a stop, but we didn't have time if we wanted to finish the loop in one day, and especially if we wanted to make it to Mt. Haleakala for the sunset. So we only made one more stop, at the Ohe'o Gulch, or "Seven Sacred Pools" - there are more than seven pools, and they've never been sacred, as far as anybody knows, but it's a catchy name...

Basically, it is a series of waterfalls along a stream that winds its way through a bamboo forest and into the ocean. Consequently, there is a trail that leads from the parking lot upstream, past a banyan tree and through the bamboo forest, to the biggest waterfall of all (which we didn't see, because Temma was almost eaten alive by the mosquitoes in the bamboo forest and we had to turn back). If you go, bring bug spray. And another, shorter, loop that leads to the ocean shore and past some more waterfalls, all very pretty. (Photos 74 - 84.)

Sometimes they let you swim in the pools by the waterfalls. It depends on the water level and waterfall intensity - winter months are obviously more dangerous. In our case, in April, waterfalls were quite tame, and there would have been no problem whatsoever about swimming or bathing next to them, except... the water level measuring equipment in the park broke down sometime in January, so they had huge, permanent-looking signs everywhere saying that swimming was "prohibited because of the dangerous water levels" (probably leftovers from the winter season) and a smaller handwritten note on the door of the visitor center explaining that, until the equipment is repaired, they cannot measure the water level and consequently cannot make a decision that the pools are safe for swimming. They apologize for the inconvenience... Bureaucracy, you are equally idiotic everywhere around the world!

Incidentally, you have to pay an entrance fee at Ohe'o Gulch, and the ticket is good for up to three days to visit the Mt. Haleakala National Park (and vice versa). This didn't make much difference to us because my husband has already reached the Golden Age of 62 (after which one is considered a National Treasure and allowed to visit national parks free of charge). Besides, we were going up to the crater later that day, regardless...

As I said, the road is quite good all the way up to Ohe'o Gulch, and if you turn around at this point you won't have to deal with what comes later. But we pressed on, along the stretches of unpaved dusty road painfully reminding me (and my back) about the old-fashioned washing-board that my grandmother used to have in the old country... A few times we met a car going in the opposite direction and had to back up, which was no problem for Alex but would have posed a hardship for a less experienced driver: the road is narrow and overgrown, and the turnoffs are far apart. Most importantly, there is nothing spectacularly interesting along the way. There is water on one side, the steep back of the mountain - on the other, stretches of tall grass... and wind! At one point, we saw a mini tour-bus stop and dislodge its passengers; we also stopped and followed them up a hill, and there was nothing there, just more of the same: water, mountain, grass, and wind... We didn't even take a picture.

We passed through a couple of small towns, of a sort, and stopped for a burger at a little shack mentioned in the guidebook, Bully's Burgers. Normally, I am not a big fan of hamburgers, but we were quite hungry by then and also didn't have a lot of time for detours. The shack was very basic but had a nice ocean view from its only, outside, table (next to the pig pen) and the burgers were good, especially mine - I got the fancy one, with mushrooms and agave juice. It was more expensive, $10 as opposed to $6 for the basic one, but worth it in my opinion.

Our timing was perfect, we turned onto the road leading to the top of Mt. Haleakala around 6 pm, stopped the car and changed into the warm clothes, which we had the forethought to bring (as opposed to the previous time). So when we reached the first overlook 40 minutes later, where it was very cold and very windy, we were OK and able to enjoy the show.

And what a show it was! Still, we were lucky with both the weather and the timing of our drive: an extra half an hour somewhere - and we would have missed the sunset altogether. So basically I recommend to separate the Hana road trip and the Mt. Haleakala sunset, do them on different days - it makes more sense this way.

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