Wilderness Wandering

Monday, January 27,2025

We flew from San Francisco direct to Maui, Hawaii. The flight was about 5.5 hours and we gained 2 hours in time zones, so we arrived early afternoon. We picked up our rental car and decided to start our visit by driving to the top of the Haleakala volcano.  

Haleakala National Park is 33,265 acres and is named after the largest dormant volcano in the world.  There are two distinct districts to the park and the two parts are not connected by any roads.

The weather was sunny and in the low 80s. The drive was about an hour and a half to cover 38 miles. On the drive from the airport to the park entrance the land was fairly flat with a lot of farming, but we were not able to figure out what the crop was. Once you reached the park entrance, you really began to climb, 10,023 feet to be exact. The road was winding but in excellent condition. We stopped at the Headquarters VC, and got the passport stamped. We talked to the ranger about the sunrise the next day. She suggested being at the summit no later than 5:30 AM for the 6:53 AM sunrise.  

We saw several men and women cycling to the top. Tim added another epic bike ride to his bucket list.

Next, we drove back down and located our hostel in the cute surfer town of Paia. Aloha Surf Hostel was a great base for us. Staying at a hostel may not be for everyone, but I am guessing 20% of the people staying there were seniors. The other 80% were very young adults. The hostel was very nice. We were in a room with four bunk beds. It was Tim, me and two young men for two nights, and then one of the young men left. He was replaced by an older man who had bright his recently deceased wife’s ashes  to be scattered on Haleakala. Thankfully, no one snored! Everyone was very considerate of each other.  The hostel had a refrigerator everyone shared and a nice kitchen anyone could use. They had daily excursions you could sign up for, which would be a really great option if you didn’t have a car. 

We headed out to find some dinner and ended up at The Paia Fishmarket. We ordered their ahi fish tacos and the home potatoes. Both melted in your mouth! It had been a long day and we had a VERY early morning the next day, so we were in bed long before our roommates. 

Tuesday, January 28,2025

The alarm went off at 3:45 AM to reach the peak of Haleakala for sunrise. This is a popular thing to do and you need to obtain a sunrise pass on Recreation.gov months in advance.  We had our winter clothing with us because of our prior stop at Lassen Volcanic. We were SO thankful to have it. We wore four layers and were still cold. The temp was 62 degrees as we left the hostel and 38 degrees at the summit.  It was extremely windy. The stars were incredible though!

We got out of the car about 5:30 and scoped out where to watch the glow of the sunrise develop. It had been cloudy at sea level, but we were fortunate to get above the clouds at the summit. The sky had a beautiful orange and pink glow.  As the sun rose over the horizon, a park ranger chanted a traditional Hawaiian chant to welcome the sun. It was a truly special moment!

After sunrise, we drove a half mile down the mountain to the Haleakala visitor center. We sat in the car to warm up for a bit. Tim noticed a man wearing an NIU sweatshirt in the men’s room. He started talking to him, and he was a former student!

Then we set out on the Sliding Sands Trail. Sliding Sands is an 11 mile hike across a volcanic landscape that looks something like the moon. The hike is rated as strenuous. Our plan was to hike down about 3 miles and assess what we wanted to do. 

The 3 miles down was quite easy with a strong tailwind. We ran into a couple that were hiking the entire 11 miles. They told us that at the end of the 11 miles there is a spot that is designated for people to hitchhike from to get a ride back to your car. We were considering it, but we didn’t have much water with us, so we decided against going the 11 miles and we turned around and began the climb back up to the rim. What a tough hike. The grade was brutal and that great tailwind was now a very strong headwind. We met three women around our age that were backpacking to a cottage in the park. They said they had wonderful food and wine in their backpacks. Tim almost went with them. 

After we were back at the car, we decided to take a drive on the coast. We stopped at some scenic views along the way to look for whales, but we didn’t have binoculars and the serious whale watchers were better prepared.

We drove to the Lahaina side of the island that was devastated by wildfires in 2023.  It was very sad to see how much the area is still suffering.

We drove by some gorgeous beaches and ended up at Nakalele Blowhole on the northwest side of the island.  A blowhole is a hole in the ground that connects to an underground, partially submerged ocean cave. The cave and opening are shaped in such a way that when the ocean rises or waves crash into it, a jet of water and air is violently forced out through the hole. It was something to watch! 

We kept going on the road towards the north, since Google Maps said it would take us back towards Paia. That was a mistake. The “road” turned into a very narrow one lane road for two lane traffic with many twists and turns. Parts of it were fairly terrifying, but the vegetation was wild and amazing and we saw some stunning views. Tim said he was glad we weren’t driving Calypso. We made it back to Paia and decided we needed a drink to calm our nerves. We discovered Paia has some fabulous happy hours! We sampled a delicious sangria at a Lima Cocina and a mai tai at Milagros. We ate fabulous ahi tuna poké for dinner. Poké is  a Hawaiian specialty.  Apparently,  the owner’s husband is a fisherman, so the fish was super fresh. 

Wednesday, January 29,2025

The Road to Hana is a 64.4 mile winding scenic drive on the northeast side of Maui with more than 600 twists and turns and 50 one lane bridges. 

We purchased an excellent app tour, Shaka Maui, for the drive and set off. We saw many beautiful waterfalls and coastal views. We made several stops including Tim’s favorite, a stop for some famous Maui banana bread that was still warm! The traffic wasn’t too bad because we left pretty early. The far north end of the drive is a different part of Haleakala National Park called the Kipahulu District. It’s the opposite of the mountain part of the park in every way.  It is at sea level with lush rain forest vegetation and lots of water. We did the Pipiwai Trail, a 4 mile round trip moderate hike that is said to be the best hike on Maui. We did enjoy it! It is a well maintained trail, much of it shaded to several beautiful waterfalls and a bamboo forest as well as banyan trees. We finished up on the half mile interpretive Kuloa Point trail with several archaeological ruins of traditional Hawaiian homes.

We met a couple originally from Australia.  The guy was wearing a tshirt that said “Whiskey helps”. Tim started talking to him and got into a lighthearted conversation in which the Australian man said he missed the beauty of Australia and it’s people. He said Americans have two problems, they stress too much and drink too little. 

Then it was time for the reverse of our morning drive. We were warm and sweaty from our hikes, so we made a stop at Wailua Falls, a beautiful waterfall along the road that isn’t too hard to access. I had a fantastic dip there in the pool at the base of the waterfall!

The drive back was more crowded than the morning was. One thing we missed on the morning drive was the painted eucalyptus trees. They are a different species of eucalyptus with bark that has multiple colors of green, purple, blue, orange and red. As it grows, the bark peels off in strips revealing different colors. I was happy we did see them on the return!

Tim did a great job with the stressful drive. We decided to visit Milagros’ happy hour once more to celebrate surviving The Road to Hana.

We also ended our time on Maui with a very wonderful dinner at Mama’s Fish House in Paia. They accept dinner reservations 18 months in advance. We felt very lucky to have scored a reservation only 48 hours in advance. We delighted in our Ahi with charred pineapple, rum baked banana and coconut rice! Our waiter Brad was an Iowa guy who came to Maui twenty years ago and never left. The atmosphere at Mama’s was exceptional, and the flowers were indescribably beautiful!

Tomorrow we are off to the Big Island of Hawaii and our 53rd National Park.