The Road to Hana

If you have ever been to Maui, Hawaii and have rented a car there, likely you might have decided to be adventurous enough to drive the road to Hana. It's best of you are a good driver, however, because there are many many one lane bridges and places where you cannot see ahead of you with parts of it a one lane bridge or road. So, it is literally an adventure unless you become used to driving this road all the time as a local. Then the only hazard is tourists who because of their inexperience on this road might do anything in perceived emergencies.

Once 25 years ago when I lived and worked in Hana, Maui for awhile I went shopping in Kahului near the Airport (because for bulk food shopping it is much cheaper than buying food in Hana). Someone had said to me, "Be careful it is supposed to rain really hard today. You don't want to be caught in parts of the road to Hana in too big a rain." Not having experienced this before I thought, "What does that mean?" Later then in 1989 I found out the hard way. We were driving our Ford Windowvan home from Kahului when it started to rain and then it really rained tropical style with drops bigger than raisins or grapes. This sort of creates floods quickly especially on an island where I was driving the rainfall is about 400 to 500 inches a year almost back to Hana. I was pretty scared because rocks were washing off the small cliffs next to the road and they kept getting bigger and banging against the tires of the Windowvan. Sometimes I was hitting the rocks because I could no longer see the road. The bridges were actually okay even though the waterfalls water almost reached the level of the bridge I was driving on. The scariest parts was when I had the ocean on one side to my left and 2 feet of water coming off the small cliffs next to the road trying to wash my Ford Windowvan into the ocean a 1000 or more feet below. Finally, at its very worst the water got so high going by us on the road that water was coming in the floorboards in the front and the back of the van was floating and I was having a hard time getting traction. The water by then was flowing from right to left across the floorboards but it wasn't quite high enough to kill the spark plugs or spark plug wires yet so the engine could still run. I finally told everyone to climb into the far back so I could get enough traction to drive forward because my rear tires were spinning in the water because they were not touching the pavement. Finally, with everyone in the far back I could move forwards enough to get out of that really bad flooding area without getting washed into the ocean. I finally had experienced what people were trying to warn me of. Anytime after that when it was supposed to rain really hard I never drove that road again when it was doing that because that's a good way to die with your family or friends and never be heard from again.

Yesterday though, my older daughter, younger daughter and my older daughter's boyfriend all drove to Hana. Luckily, the rain was light so I got these great pictures of waterfalls. If it isn't raining a little bit somewhere above us towards Haleakala the volcano then there won't be water in the waterfalls, and that's a given. So, we were really lucky to be traveling  because it wasn't as warm as it would have been without the light rain. We also stopped at

Wai'anapanapa State Park - Hana, HI | Yelp

www.yelp.com › Active Life › Parks‎

Yelp, Inc.

Rating: 4.5 - ‎65 reviews

65 Reviews of Wai'anapanapa State Park "Absolutely fantastic! This may be the most beautiful spot I have ever seen on this Earth. Just breathtaking. The park ...

This is a black sand beach because it is completely made up of volcanic formations and black sand (however, it is mostly little round rocks this time of year). We had thought we might snorkel but the water was too rough for this because of the rain storm but we all went wading and had a great time here. I didn't get pictures of Waianapanapa (pronouced Waya napa napa with short a's on the napa napa". Unless you are a native Hawaiian then every letter is sort of pronounced as an individual element.

Later we went to Hana and ate at the Hana Ranch Restaurant. We were going to go to the Seven Sacred Pools too but by then we had spent so much times stopping at waterfalls and Waianapanapa that we realized we needed to head back because it was already 6mp.

It was about 10 pm when we returned to our Condo. So, if you do this it is a long drive both ways but very breathtaking scenery and rainforests that you drive through to get there.

 Because it was lightly raining both where we were and above us at higher altitudes it caused these waterfalls to be filled with water. However, in heavy rains you don't want to be most places on the Road to Hana for your own safety because after all you are in a rainforest where it rains 400 to 500 inches a year.

The Bottom photo is a Hawaiian version of the Mynah bird which I have found all over Maui and other Islands. They have unmistakable sounds which along with the doves make being in Hawaii pretty amazing along with the winds, softly crashing waves and other sounds which make Hawaii a peaceful idyllic experience especially for visitors.

There is also a T-Shirt you can buy and wear that says, "I Survived the Road to Hana!"

Note: As you might see in photo 93 if you go to the Yelp site button for Wai'anapanapa there are also Mongooses in the Hana and Wai'anapanapa area. You can feed them if you want but remember they are wild and can bite. Also, these things can easily kill a Cobra because they are so very fast. So, don't underestimate this little creature. It is cute but deadly for it's size. If you think  "It's a little feral cat" that might be the best way to think about them. They are wild and are good at defending themselves. They are NOT domesticated out here.