The Road To Hana

One of the big tourist attractions on Maui is the road to Hana. In fact, residents use "the road to Hana" as a metaphor for an unpredictable adventure. Running along the north coast from Pa'ia to Hana a mere 35 miles, the trip would take over an hour and a half without stopping. You're gonna stop. Maybe just to photograph the several waterfalls alongside the road or the small towns on the waterfront hundreds of feet below. Or to stop at one of dozens of fruit stands hawking their wares. Or to drop down off the highway to visit one of those small towns or turn off to hike one of the arboretums or nature preserves.

This is one of the most treacherous roads in the country. At its best, it's a narrow winding two-lane county road. At its worst, it's an unending series of switchbacks hugging the face of a cliff with hundreds of feet of vertical rock above and below around blind curves with a total of 54 one-lane bridges. The whole thing is silky smooth asphalt with a double yellow line along the full distance. Actually, the double line only shows up occasionally - on the easy parts - on the rest of it it's totally unnecessary. I recall hitting 40 mph a couple of times, mostly we stayed well below 30 with many stretches at 10-15mph. The hell of it is, stretches of curves build a rhythm that could be expressed in music. With a good sports car and the assurance of no oncoming traffic, it would be simply the most enjoyable experience a driver could have. Unfortunately, the oncoming traffic means you drive slowly with total concentration on the task at hand. No thrill like meeting a tour bus in the middle of one of those narrow blind curves. Meanwhile, your passenger will be exclaiming over the incredible views. You're going to stop often if only to avoid fatigue.

Note the cars on the road below. A typical view.

We drove it 3 times!

Honest. The first time we took several hours to get to Hana. Stopped everywhere. Had to. It was just so seductive, all those waterfalls, panoramas, beach detours, hiking trails, tourist traps. One of those traps was a lava tube 30 or so feet diameter inside, stretching half a mile. By the time we reached Hana, we had to turn around and go back without stopping or have to face that treacherous bastard after dark. A tip, start with a full tank. Gas was $5.50 in Hana. Worse, Hana itself isn't all that much. Nice beach, a couple of stores,a couple of tiny museums, that's about it.

Next day we did it again. The national park covers Haleakala volcano and extends down to the southeast shore, past Hana. We had to see it. Got up early, set out over that curvy beast again and got to the park by noon. There were still some attractions we'd missed, had to stop. The major attractions of this park were the 7 sacred pools and Wailua Falls. Of course the falls weren't just off the parking lot. 2 miles of rough trail on a near constant up slope through a bamboo forest and a couple of fast flowing streams. No bridge here, just grab a piece of bamboo for a hiking stick and get your legs wet to the knee - watch out for slippery rocks. The view was worth the effort. Hard rains of the past two days had the 200 - 300 foot falls flowing well. As with so much else here, the pictures hardly do it justice.

That took a little longer that we'd budgeted. 4:00 in the afternoon with a hard dark tropical sundown of about 6:30. All the island brochures warn not to take your rental cars on the southern route of the island. There are some bridges that get covered by streams at unpredictable intervals, the road is rough (more about that later) and I suspect the cattle ranchers there simply would rather you not drive through there. We met some people who had come that way and they reassured us the road was passable that day.Away we go. After a few miles I understood why rental companies didn't want to risk their vehicles on this piece of road. It is possible to make asphalt rougher than any dirt two-track you've ever encountered. Just let a few potholes emerge, cover them with lumps of cold-patch asphalt, wait for more potholes and repeat the process. You end up with a suspension-wrecking mess resembling a cobblestone street paved with boulders. Milford's Belgian Blocks is a featherbed by comparison. Where the Hana road featured guardrails, this part of the road definitely didn't. Okay, it's only about 8 miles like that. Something better than an hour, including stops for cattle having their little joke of lounging in the roadway. Worth it - the south side of the mountain is spectacular. After that, everything gets smooth and easy.

We're now on Kauai and Liz is chomping at the bit for a quick walk to the shore. More later, I promise.