After Wai’anapanapa park, we hit the Hana highway again, this time deciding to bypass Hana itself and head straight to Lindbergh’s grave, then back track to the sites we want to see on the way home. Probably a good decision, since it’s still early – before 11:00am and we still have the road to ourselves. We sort of preview our tour while on the way to the gravesite. It’s probably a good thing, because in 10 years, some things have absolutely changed! First of all, there’s a huge construction site where we are supposed to park to get to the Venus pools. I’m way bummed, because the pools look awesome – but there’s no way we’ll stop here – not unless we don hard hats and wave those little “slow” or “stop” signs!
Ohe’o gulch is about the same – while you might have been able to stop there years ago – you’re not doing it now. It looks awesome – but – we’re not walking back there from the National park (which in our guidebook doesn’t exist quite yet – that’s pretty funny!) and there’s no where to park if you don’t walk back down. It’s a particularly narrow and twisty part of the road. So. Well. It’s just not happening. We’ll just be happy with the photos in the guidebook!
So – anyway – we head past all these points of interest straight to Lindbergh’s gravesite. It’s the furthest we are going on the Hana Highway. You can actually continue on the highway and go all the way around the Haleakala volcano, but it’s a hazardous road in good conditions, and with all the rain lately, there is no way we’re even thinking about trying it.
Lindbergh’s gravesite
The GPS actually leads us right to the little church with Lindbergh’s grave. It’s really not easy to find, the road is nothing but a little turnout on the side of the road (look for the Maui Ranch sign on the side of the road), then you have to really carefully watch the signs for the church (actually the GPS told us to turn on the “road” – no names, just “road”). Once there – it’s the most idyllic little church and cemetery, on a cliff overlooking the water shaded by huge banyan, wild plum and coconut trees. The gravesites date from early settlements, to the more recent including Charles Lindbergh and Sam Pryor – his lifelong friend, and probably the reason why Lindbergh lived and was buried here.
Pryor, a past Pan American airline CEO, restored the church, including an amazing stained glass window depicting Jesus (see our pix below). It’s a fabulous looking church – simple and elegant all at the same time. And the little oddity in the graveyard are the graves of Pryor’s pet Gibbon monkeys – the only non-human remains allowed in the graveyard! Interesting? Yep! You betcha!
Haleakala National Park – Kipahulu
Back on the Hana highway, retracing our steps, we stop at the National park – Kipahulu side – to hike up to the waterfalls and down to the 7 sacred pools. We flash our National Park pass and get in for free – avoiding the $10 per car fee. Gotta love that pass! It’s been a god-send for all our travels. We dump the car, and wander down to the trail head. We decide to try a little bit of the Pipiwai trail, that winds up the mountain 2 miles and gives you good views of the Makahiku falls. Our guidebook says you can “deviate” to the infinity pool, which I really want to see. We hike up a little over 1/2 mile and quite frankly the viewpoints aren’t that great. They are overgrown and the cliffs are so dangerous, there are signs and fences to keep you away. We figure we’ve seen enough waterfalls for the day – so after a while – we just head back down without really seeing much. But at least we get our aerobics for the day.
Back down at the ranger station, we grab our cooler and picnic on a bench near the forest. Then we hit the facilities (yay! REALLY clean restrooms), get our national parks passport stamped, listen to the Ranger tell another visitor that the road to the Haleakala crater is closed due to ice, and that the “real” cold front is due Thursday and we might see some snow on the mountain (joy – snow! Just what we’re trying to avoid, and hey, that means we really have to watch the weather for our crater trip), then hit the car and head back up to Hana. Oh yeah, completely forgetting about the 7 sacred pools trail loop we wanted to hike after lunch. Total nincompoops!
Hamoa and Koki beach
A quick little detour down Haneoo Road, another narrow little lane running through incredible countryside – and we come upon Hamoa beach. It’s a popular place, with cars lining the side of the road and more people than we’ve seen all day on the beach enjoying the sunshine. We just wanted to see the place, so we pull over at the bus stop/mailbox stop and snap a few pix. Definitely a great place to spend a morning or afternoon if you are up here and want a beach.
Hana Town
We head straight to Hana Town and the little pier down on the bay. It’s really a fabulously backwoods kind of atmosphere here – ok – albeit pricey, spa-like backwoods. But still! We take a little trail and walk around the end of the bay to see the little “red sand pocket beach”, no more than a cove on the bay, and not all that picturesque at high tide. But the rest of the scenery is incredible – the outcropping of rocks and a huge cliff-like island in the bay. The bucolic houses and cattle roaming on the hillside overlooking the water. Looking for seclusion? This is the place to be. It’s a 3 hour drive to town – or a small plane or helicopter ride. You can definitely see the seclusionist allure!
Back on the road home – Ed is the #1 driver (sorry Sigis – he really won his award on this drive!!!), and he’s taking the corners and bridges like a pro. We stop once for the Waimea falls – with all the 10 other cars and huge tourist vans – to take photos….
then we’re off – down the road – 2 hours of twisty, turning, switchback, one lane bridge road rally! We somehow manage to get hooked into a great little “train” of locals and visitors who are really making good time and running the bridges and switchbacks like pros. It really helps the drive and the time. We fly down that road – barely stopping and make it back in no time flat. Well, no time flat is relative – after all, I’m just sitting in the car, not doing the driving. Ed’s arm muscles are getting a workout – that’s for sure!
Hana Road Miscellany
The takeaway – it’s an awesome experience, from both the driver and the passenger perspective. But….you have to go up early – and then come back down mid-afternoon. Start early and you miss all the crowds, can see what you want without worry and miss the traffic – we hardly saw any cars on the way up.
Same with the way down. Since we had done everything we wanted to do by about 1:30, our drive back down to central Maui was much easier, because the heavy traffic going up to Hana had already passed. But, there was still traffic – and oh boy – the tour vans! There were 30 at least! We were so glad we beat all the tours and the late sleepers. Really worth it!
Street food – there are all sorts of little roadside stands to buy food; the Halfway to Hana foodstand, the “last food stand” (after Hana before you go around the island), Tutu’s fast food, etc. You name it, there are tons of places to buy food. We of course brought our own and picnicked because we had read about the high prices and low quality. But, we were really intrigued by the two – yes TWO - Thai food stands. Had we not brought our picnic lunch – we would have definitely stopped at one of these stands. They were adorable! Open air, little shacks, basically, but Thai food? They so reminded us of street food in Bangkok! How fun!
Another intriguing sight: Honor system fruit stands. TONS of them all up and down the road. $2 for a papaya, $3 for a pineapple, just leave your money in the box. That is so great! We had already bought our pineapple, and we have a lemon and star fruit tree in our yard – so – we didn’t partake. But how great was that!!
Back at home
We hit Kihei about 3;00 – stopped at Safeway for some supplies and then sat out in the back yard for some sun. Dinner tonight – Chicken marinated in our own Hawaiian lemons from the tree in our backyard – it was awesome! Those lemons are so good – they are like Meyer lemons, so tart and juicy. Definitely something we’ll do again, since there are tons of ripe lemons ready for the picking!
Then TV, relaxing and bed time early. Exhausting – but great day - on the Road the to Hana.
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