A few waterfalls you could see from the road, but those kind of felt like a letdown. The best were the ones you had to get out and hike to. The very best one was at a kind of rest stop where there was a lower fall with a large pool. But then there was a trail to the upper fall that was much less visited. We hiked up about 15 minutes on a "squishy" trail which at times was so overgrown you had to crouch and walk.
Then we came to an aquaduct about 50 feet above the rocky stream bed.
We crossed that, and followed another little trail another few minutes to find the most gorgeous and secluded pool with a picture perfect waterfall.
And then my camera battery died.
The water was cold. Colder than the lake the other weekend. At least at the lake you get used to it after a minute or so. I put my feet in and for about 5 minutes they just felt colder. Then they numbed over. Needless to say I didn't get in. I might (stress MIGHT) have braved it to swim across and stand under the waterfall if the camera had been working, but with no visual evidence to prove I had done it I thought there was really no point. Chris felt the same way.
When we got there another couple was swimming and taking pictures, but they left soon after and we had the whole thing to ourselves for a while. Just before we left, another group (dad with two teenage kids) came up. That was definitely the best waterfall and the others after that just weren't as special.
We stopped at a little roadside stand for some great kalua pig tacos for lunch and continued into Hana. We detoured for a while at the lava tube cave and took a self guided tour.
I managed to squeeze out a few pictures, but the flash wouldn't work. The cave was formed by a lava flow which cooled on the top, but continued to flow underground and left a tunnel about the size of a subway tunnel in most places. It also made formations like stalactites (looked like upside down hershey's kisses) and stalagmites (the only ones in the country formed by lava were here). At the end was a little backflow "room" where we turned off the flashlights and experienced total darkness. Pretty cool.
After the cave we stopped by the state park with the black sand beach but it was really crowded so we took the trail up to the blowhole instead. Gorgeous views of the black lava coastline with the waves crashing against. The water was really deep blue-green.
The blowhole wasn't blowing, but we found some cool formations and little caves to poke our heads in. I managed to squeeze a few pictures out.
We were getting pretty tired by now so we decided to go ahead and finish up by driving the rest of the loop around the southeast side. Now, there is a myth (which used to be true) that you really can't make this drive. It used to be very bad road, undrivable except maybe in 4WD and you would violate your rental contract, get stuck, and die out there. Not true, but it wasn't a drive in the country either.
We'll start with the fact that the nice couple at the secluded waterfall pool before us mentioned that the road to Seven Sacred Pools was closed AND there was a sign at the taco stand saying it would be closed through the end of May. Well I just figured we weren't going to Seven Sacred Pools so we would just drive right by. Well no. The whole road was closed. But when we got to the road block (which only covered part of the road) we could see some cars going through anyway (locals) and the lady in the house right there said it was fine. We thought, what the hell.
The road was about the same as the Hana road, windy and narrow with little old bridges. But then we came to the construction site and there was a brand new pretty bridge! The cars in front of us had clearly gone over because there had been no turnoffs. So we thought, what the hell. Just as we're about to roll onto the edge of the new pavement I see a sign they'd recently taken down that said "DO NOT CROSS" and explained how the bridge was in a state of disrepair and would crumble... and you would fall to your death, etc. Ok maybe not that explicit. But I didn't even have time to say anything to Chris and we had made it across. Worst part over, right?
Remember the road to Hana? Now picture it even narrower, sometimes one and a half lane, but usually only one. And narrow at that. I was often worried about the car's side mirrors. Now add elevation changes up and down steep inclines. Now add gravel off and on for about five miles. That was our road.
Thankfully we were very lonely on the road and only occasionally did we have to pull over to let locals fly by or scoot around cars going the other way. After the gravel sections it straightened out for a bit, but was still very bumpy pavement which hadn't been repaved in probably 50 years. We did make it without any major incident, and the views of the coastline and flip side of Haleakala were well worth it. It was a stunning contrast from the lush green Hana side, instead being more shrub-like and barren, with huge valleys of volcanic rock.
At one point we crossed a bridge over a short crevice that opened up into a large area at the ocean's edge. There was a large turn off so we parked and got out. You could see that WAY down below some unfortunate souls that had been driving too fast around the turn coming the other way had gone over the cliff. There were two really rusted out cars almost on top of each other, another half rusted one, and one with a pretty new bright yellow paint job (which I never saw and was a point of contention for several hours). I managed to squeeze the last few pictures out of the camera and finally killed the battery so bad the shutter wouldn't even close.
Then the drive changed into a greener, tree-lined road that reminded me of country roads in western Europe. We stopped at a winery and tasted some pineapple wine. It was pretty good and Chris even liked it enough to justify buying a couple bottles (he doesn't like pineapple, go figure). Then back on the road we rounded the corner of the island and scenery changed to almost completely barren black lava fields. We could see the uninhabited island of Kaho'olawe in the distance. Unfortunately there is no road over the lava fields to our hotel (which we could see way down the hill) so it was all the way back up to Kahului airport area and then all the way back down on the coastline roads.
Dinner was in Kihei at a tiki bar where we had yummy drinks, calamari, and a portuguese sausage sandwich. Then we had drinks at another little hangout, and headed home to crash.
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