I am so excited to share about our Road to Hana adventure! 😁
I won’t lie. I was super nervous about it. I waited and waited to tell the crew about it because I knew they would not be happy about the drive, especially the husband. But it all worked out, we did the drive and had an amazing time (with some hiccups of course).
As was the theme of the week, the plan for this adventure was to leave as early as possible and to do the drive in the reverse order, meaning we would drive to the very end (pass Hana) and make our stops on the way back. I had done my research and seen people do it both ways but I personally felt that starting at the end would allow us to see all the things we wanted to see. In other words we would be forced to drive back and while we were driving back we would make quick stops 😆. If we had done it the opposite way I feared that the kids would be tired of being in the car and the frequent stops and would complain enough to make us turn around. Not to mention the thought of driving 3 hours back would linger and would have definitely made us turn around sooner. And so that was one of my reasons behind doing the Road to Hana in the reverse order.
We left our condo in Kihei a little before 7am. We should have left earlier (and I strongly recommend leaving earlier and packing lots and lots of drinks and snacks) but at last it was what it was. By 7:20 we had officially began the drive on Hana Rd and we made it to Haleakala National Park by 10:30am. I also strongly recommend downloading the Gypsy App and listening to it on the drive. It allowed us to see certain things that we would have otherwise missed (like the rainbow trees), we skipped certain stops were we saw some cars parked because according to Gypsy, there was really nothing there to see. Some people get curious if they see people out of their cars and looking around and they tend to stop to check it out and it becomes a waste of precious time.
The drive was definitely worth it. Beautiful scenery between waterfalls, ocean views, cool looking trees, and the way the road curves, among others things on the road. A little scary but not too crazy. Another thing I recommend is doing the drive in two days if possible. I wish we would have planned for this better with a night in Hana, but our time in Maui didn’t allow for it. So what were our stops? We didn’t do them all. I researched the stops and picked the ones that attracted us more. Starting with the Pipiwai Trail at Haleakala National Park pass the town of Hana. This is at the very end of the drive. Also, you need parking tickets and you have 3 days to use it for the summit as well if you are going after 7am (after the sunrise).
Pipiwai Trail
This hiking trail was 2 miles long one way and has several waterfalls, a large banyan tree, the bamboo forest, and a 400ft waterfall at the end called Waimoku Fall. When we went we were not able to cross the stream to get to the bottom of the Fall, I think it all had to do with safety due to weather, not exactly sure though. But we also had kids with us and we probably wouldn’t have done it anyways. There is lots to see on this short hike and I was so glad we did it. It rained on and off while we hiked but not too bad and as expected I guess. It took us close to 3 hours to complete (roundtrip) because we kept stopping for pictures etc. Do I recommend it? Absolutely! Is it worth driving all the way here? For sure! Aside from this trail there are two other shorter ones that we didn’t do because of time. I read that these other trails includes other waterfalls that you can swim at, however be on alert because depending on the day and certain factors they might not allow swimming.
The Bamboo forest was my favorite! It made me feel like I was in a completely different place. Walking through it was so relaxing.
Our second stop was the Kaihalulu beach (also known as the red sand beach). This beach is located in the town of Hana. It wasn’t too hard to find. A quick right turn off the main road and we were able to find parking at the end of the road by the school. We gathered our things and walked the .5 miles towards the beach. This was our oops 😅. Apparently I didn’t research this enough to find out that it wasn’t as kid friendly as I had supposed. My mom stayed behind because she wasn’t feeling well. My two sisters went along for about 5 minutes they turned around because one was afraid of heights and the other was just recovering from foot surgery and didn’t want to do the walk with her toddler. Good thing they both turned around when they did. I won’t lie friends. This was a scary path. I can’t even believed we did it with the kids. I wish I could show you pictures but I didn’t take my phone out because I had to concentrate on my walk so that I wouldn’t fall into the ocean. Yes, that type of walk. Then at the end we had to climb down to get to the beach part. As I sit here typing I can still hear hubby’s remarks about how irresponsible it was of me to not look into how dangerous this was for the kids. And I admit, I was disappointed in myself as well. But by the grace of God we did it without any issues and enjoyed some time in the water, took some pretty pictures and then headed back up to the car safely. This was the type of beach you’d do with just your partner, other couples, or a group of friends. I wouldn’t recommend it with young children but we did see other couples there with littles ones maybe around 8/9 years old.
Overall, it was so pretty and had we planned better we could have packed a light lunch to set camp and eat here. I think we spent a total of one hour here. We would have stayed longer if we didn’t have everyone else waiting by the car and if the waves would have been calmer.
There was access to another beach where we had parked (to the right of the school) that we didn’t know about. When we got to the car my mom told us that my sisters had gone to the beach. I was super confused but soon after they came back and told us there was a walkway to get to the beach on the next street. I’m not sure what beach that was and whether or not it was red sand or what but since we had reservations to Wai’anapanapa State Park at 3pm we didn’t stay to find out.
My mother and sister didn’t join us to Wai’anapanapa State Park (where the black sand beach is). They stayed in Hana for lunch while we drove to the park. We were only 10 minutes away and had agreed to meet up afterwards.
Tickets for parking and per person was required here and reservations needed to be done ahead of time. I believe I reserved two weeks out and when I had checked again a week prior to our trip the tickets were sold out. So definitely do your research and reserve early rather than later. I picked the 3p-6p time slot and that was more than enough time. We actually didn’t stayed there longer than an hour as well because the waves were crazy and it was unsafe for the kiddos to be in the water. We simply walked around and took a few pictures. The view was beautiful and again, had the water been calmer it would have been a great location to stay for a while. I was also feeling a little bad that my mom and sister had stayed behind and we didn’t feel right staying there long. Thankfully the tickets were not pricey so not staying the full allotted time didn’t hurt much 😆.
We stopped to eat after leaving the state park and then started the drive back home. Our drive back to our condo took 2.5 hours. We intended to stop at Waimea Falls as well after leaving Haleakala State Park but we didn’t. I can’t recall why. Other stops we intended to do were in the beginning of the drive and I had scheduled it so that we did them on another day when we visited the town of Paia. That was my version of splitting the drive into two days because I just knew it was going to be too much doing it all in one day. Hence why I wanted to do the stops starting at the end since most of the stops were already there. Then it would have just been a nice drive back after our last stop.
On our way there we didn’t encounter much traffic and by the time we made it to Haleakala there weren’t many cars in the parking lot. At least not as many as there were when we returned from our hike. Which also made for a not so packed trail. I would do it this way again if I had to. However, if I had the chance to do the drive in over two days I would start at the beginning drive till we got to Wai’anapanapa State Park then camp out there or stay in a hotel in Hana for the night then proceed with the drive the next morning leaving the hikes for later in the afternoon and definitely doing all three hikes. So you know what this means right? Another trip to Maui is a must! 😉 (but that for when all of my kids are over 12 hahaha). Also, because of Covid many things on the road were closed down. There wasn’t many fruit stands as I had read, some areas even had signs saying “closed because of Covid”. So I am sure had we visited prior to Covid our experienced would have been a little different and possibly even a better one.
All in all it truly is about the drive more than anything. With over 620 curves, 59 bridges (46 being one lane), 1400+ above sea level, over 10 waterfalls, colored sand “rocks” beaches, several hikes, a bamboo forest, and the cutest little town with a nice history to it, the 6+ hours of driving made for awesome memories. Even my kids on our way backed had us laughing at how they described the drive. Is funny because as adults we imagine one thing and see things a certain way. But from a kids perspective it’s so much more fun to listen to 🤣. I am so thankful for the memories and the bonding we were able to do over this drive. Road of Hana for the win!
