Aloha! - Day 5: Part 1

This was a fun day as we spent the whole day doing the famous "Road to Hana" trip.  We started our day leaving the resort just after 6 in the morning to get a head start.  This road was very tight with switch backs and then many one lane sections and bridges.  Once you got to the one lane areas you hit a yield sign to see if another car was coming and there were many times where you couldn't see if another car was coming, so you just went for it.  There were many other times where the car on the other side never yield to us and we already went, but then had to be careful because the other car didn't yield.  It was insane driving and may times Andy wasn't going over 20mph because he just couldn't.  I was just glad that it wasn't me driving because I couldn't handle it as it seemed stressful.  I have heard many people get sick doing this drive, but I never did.  I have never had a problem with car sickness.  On the way back though I was now on the edge of the coast and there were numerous times where Andy had to pull tight to the edge of the road and I was right on the edge looking down over the cliffs and straight to the ocean.  It was kind of scary.  That is when the drive bothered me, but not on the way to Hana.  It took us just over two hours to get to Hana and then about another half an hour to get to the national park.

We had our trusty Maui Revealed book the whole way.  In the book it talks about numerous stops to see waterfalls and many other beautiful sights; however, Andy and I decided just to ignore all the stops and head straight to the park to see the 400 foot waterfall as we decided we would hit the stops on the way back from Hana. 

Once we arrived at the National Park we were informed there was no swimming in the sacred seven pools that day because of high tide.  No problem I thought as I really just wanted to see the seven pools and then hike on to the giant waterfall.  Needless to say they blocked off the "swimming" area, so we couldn't even see the "seven" waterfalls either.  We could see a "tiny" bit and not even enough for a picture.  Oh well, we were then off to our 2 mile hike to the giant waterfall.

Neat looking tree as we started our hike.

Only just the beginning.  Notice Andy's "Keens"

Fun "Danger" signs throughout the hike.

First waterfall.

Beautiful scenery.

This waterfall was pretty neat as it went into the "cave" (pool) of water below.

Pool of water from the above falls.

This two part waterfall was very beautiful as we took pictures from a bridge.

Funny, as we were trying to get the double waterfalls behind us...totally missed on that one.

Entering the bamboo forest.

The bamboo forest was really interesting and made fun sounds when a breeze would come through and the bamboo would knock into each other.

Andy loves getting his picture taken.

More of the bamboo forest.

And here is the giant 400 foot waterfall that we hiked two miles to see.

Absolutely beautiful!

Loved it!

The bottom of the waterfall.

This picture of my Keens is for my friend, Pam, as she suggested we buy them.  They worked great!  Thanks Pam!

Trying to look semi-decent while taking the photo of us and the bottom of the waterfall in the background.

We found a nice couple that took our picture with the waterfall!

This was another kick ass tree on the hike!

This is the trunk of the tree...very cool!

The view from the National Park before we took off to head back down the road.

Following the amazing hike we started our way back down the curvy road and made some scenic stops on the way.