The long and winding road to Hana, Hawaii
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In Kaanapali, Maui's miles-long stretch of beachfront resorts, there was a traffic jam of commuters and tourists, stoplights and short tempers.
But on what's called the "back road" to Hana, we drove peacefully through some of Hawaii's most stupendous scenery, and in an hourlong stretch passed just four other cars. Drivers waved at each other, the way people do on lonely roads where they're specks in a spectacular land.
The day trip, a circular drive around South and East Maui covering the Highway 31 back road and the better-known Hana Highway, took a Hawaiian friend and me to barren lava flows and empty beaches, to lush jungle and waterfalls.
It was an excursion into history, too. We stopped to visit old-fashioned stores in tiny villages, stone churches standing lonely sentinel by the sea, an ancient Hawaiian temple and the gravesite of Charles Lindbergh, America's most famous aviator who spent his last years in the secluded beauty of the Hana area.
The road to Hana
The main road to Hana in East Maui — the Hana Highway — is well known and much traveled by tourists. The 56-mile route winds its way via Highways 36 and 360, from Kahului, the main commercial hub and airport, to Hana, a rain-bathed, old-fashioned community of fewer than 1,000.
The last two-thirds of the highway will punish anyone who tends to be car sick. But the vistas at every turn, of ocean, waterfalls and lush greenery, are worth it.
Highway is a grandiose name for this road. It is paved all the way, but it roller-coasters across furrowed sea cliffs, twisting through about 600 curves and across almost 60 bridges, many of them one lane, where cars must take turns. A jungle-like tangle of vines, tulip trees and ferns hugs the road. Stretching above are the bulky, smooth slopes of the Haleakala volcano, the 10,023-foot centerpiece of this half of Maui.
Locals in a hurry can drive from the airport to Hana in two hours. Visitors, who will want stop to see the sights, could easily make a whole day (or more) of it, gawking at the views or stopping to explore beaches, tropical gardens, waterfalls and the town of Hana.
"Don't fit in a luau in the evening or anything with a deadline because you really won't enjoy it. You'll be stressed by the drive," said Nalani Kaauamo, who lives in Ke'anae, a mainly native Hawaiian community off the Hana Highway, one of the few flat stretches of land along the road, where taro fields and banana trees flourish.
"Give it all day. Relax. Do it the Hana way," said Kaauamo.
I did it an even more relaxing way, driving on Highway 31, the back road through South Maui to Hana then continuing homeward on the much-better-known and more heavily traveled Hana Highway. This counter-clockwise, circular route totals roughly 120 miles from Kahului, and takes about five hours to drive straight through (add an hour if you're coming from Kaanapali, Maui's main resort area).
Taking the back road one way is much more pleasant than driving the twisty Hana Highway there and back. But there are reasons why the back road, roughly a 30-mile stretch from Ulupalakua to Kipahulu (then on to Hana), is little traveled.
Although it's designated as a highway, the back road is a narrow, worn-out route with no markings, some hairpin curves and potholes, and a five-mile unpaved stretch. There are no services apart from the little general store in the tiny community of Kaupo. Washouts occasionally close the road.
Break down on this stretch of road and help is hours away. That, and wear and tear on the cars, is why many rental-car companies say their cars can't be taken on the back road. (Some companies may let drivers travel the route as long as they sign an insurance waiver acknowledging they're responsible for any damage; inquire with the local rental office when you book. )
Still, the back road has been much improved in recent years. And for anyone who's driven U.S. Forest Service mountain roads in the Pacific Northwest, the back road is not intimidating and a four-wheel-drive vehicle isn't necessary despite what some older maps say. Just go slowly, which is no hardship since you'll want to gawk at the views and drink in the sense of isolation, which you get hardly anywhere else on Maui.
Locals recommend driving the route counter-clockwise, starting early in the morning on the back road (we started about 7 a.m.). It's less twisty than the Hana Highway, meaning you won't be woozy when you stop for lunch. It also gets you to popular stops, such as the rock pools and waterfalls of Ohe'o Gulch near Hana, before other tourists. Then, heading home on the Hana Highway you can beat the late-afternoon rush of day-trippers heading back to their hotels.
Or, to enjoy the excursion even more, stay a night in Hana, explore some more in the morning and drive out on the Hana Highway in the afternoon.
Here are some of the highlights of the circle route, starting with the back road. Ask locally, too, as all who've explored the area will have their own favorite beaches, waterfalls and walks.
To Ulupalakua and the 'back road'
Start by taking Highway 37 to upcountry Maui on the slopes of Haleakala. Follow the increasingly rural road to Ulupalakua, a 20,000-acre cattle ranch (which has branched into a winery with a roadside tasting room open to visitors).
After Ulupalakua is where the back road to Hana, the far-too-grandly-named Highway 31, begins. Forest and pasture dwindle into arid scrub on this dry side of the island. The road narrows into bumpy, unmarked pavement, and there's not a building and only rarely a vehicle in sight as the back road meanders across the southern slope of Haleakala at about 2,500 feet.
Lava flows from Haleakala, some as recent as the late 1700s, and cattle overgrazing have made the land even more barren. Yet it's starkly beautiful. Rivers of hardened lava undulate down to the ocean, and there are sweeping views out to sea and across the vast, empty slopes of Haleakala.
Only a handful of families live in the area, native Hawaiians trying to eke out a living in what once was a traditional homeland.
The road meanders down to the sea, to a rocky beach pounded by the surf. On a sun-sparkled morning, there was only one other person at the beach, a local still asleep in his beat-up camper truck.
Centuries ago there would have been fishermen there, setting out in canoes into the rough seas. Cherie Attix, with whom I was driving, picked up a kukui nut, or candlenut, that had fallen from a wind-bent tree.
"The fishermen used to grind up these nuts and throw them on the water. They're really oily. It would create a film, settling down the water, so they could see to fish," said Attix. I put one of the small brown nuts in my pocket, a little souvenir of old Hawaiian life.
Kaupo
The back road leads on to Kaupo, a settlement of a few ranching families and back-to-the-land types.
The Kaupo general store sits, lonely, by the side of the road, Haleakala rising behind it and the lip of the crater framing the weather-beaten wood building. (Serious hikers can follow a trail thousands of feet down from the crater to almost-sea-level Kaupo.) Inside the dimly lit store were cold drinks, snacks, and old cameras and knick-knacks displayed on dark wood shelves.
Around Kaupo, the road is at its worst, with a five-mile stretch unpaved and potholed. It's also where the land starts getting much greener, thanks to Hawaii's rapidly changing microclimates, where an island can have near desert conditions and some of the highest rainfall in the world. It rains around 40 to 50 inches a year in the Kaupo area, on the leeward side. Around Hana, on Maui's windward shore, the clouds pile up against Haleakala and dump 80 to 160 inches of rain, or more, per year.
Kipahulu
Past Kaupo, the road is still mostly empty as it twists along cliffs of gnarled lava on the edge of the ocean, then into the lush greenery of the settlement of Kipahulu. After the empty, arid stretches, it seems like a verdant metropolis with dozens of homes, including some fancy vacation hideaways tucked among flowering trees, banana trees and banyan trees.
This rain-bathed, ocean-cliff village was where Lindbergh, the aviator famed for his nonstop, solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, spent his last years. He died in 1974 and is buried in the graveyard of the 150-year-old Palapala Ho'omau Congregational Church.
The church, like a half-dozen other 19th-century missionary churches along the route, is a simple building of whitewashed coral. Lindbergh's grave is equally simple, a white plaque surrounded by black lava stones inscribed: "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea."
Ohe'o Gulch
Get ready to meet your fellow tourists — the ones who have driven to Ohe'o Gulch via the Hana Highway. This is the end of the road for most of them — and a worthy destination for everyone.
Ohe'o Gulch is a seaside outpost of Haleakala National Park where a stream staircases into waterfalls as it tumbles down the steep slopes. Once called the Seven Sacred Pools, a 1940s marketing tactic by the Hotel Hana Maui, there actually are about two dozen natural, rock pools.
Some pools are right by the road and ideal for swimming. But at midday they can be jammed with visitors. Follow the hiking trail down toward the ocean or up a mile or two into the rainforest to get to quieter pools — and experience the rainforest up close.
Just be sure to bring mosquito repellent; it's a jungle. And be ready for rain, any time; the rainforest above the pools can be deluged with 250 inches in a year, according to the National Park Service.
Hamoa Beach
Along this circular drive there are none of the miles of safe swimming beaches that make Kaanapali and Wailea such popular Maui resort areas. Most of the beaches are small, hemmed by cliffs and the sea is too dangerous for swimming because of strong waves and currents.
Locals have their favorite beaches. But for visitors, Hamoa Beach, a few miles from Hana, is easily accessible and beach-fantasy beautiful — a thousand-foot curve of white sand edged by cliffs and palms. It's dominated by Hotel Hana Maui guests, who are shuttled here by van from the luxury hotel, but everyone has the right to use it since all Hawaii beaches are public. Check locally before swimming, though; it can be dangerous.
Hana
Stop here for lunch, gas and to poke around the sprawling Hasegawa General Store, which sells anything you could want, from fish to flip-flops and organic fruit. Or stop to stay a night in Hana.
The town, once a sugar-plantation and then a ranching town, is now mostly fueled by tourism and tiny family farms. It's a quiet place, with a scattering of houses, a small museum and the luxury Hotel Hana Maui and smaller hotels and B&Bs tucked along seaside cliffs and a semi-protected bay.
This is where you pick up the classic Hana Highway — Highway 360 (which farther north merges into Highway 36).
The road was first hacked into the seaside cliffs in the 1920s; sometimes it feels as if it hasn't changed much since then. Last year, the Hana Highway was placed on the federal National Register of Historic Places to help preserve its old Hawaii character.
Wai'anapanapa State Park
If you want to picnic and stretch your legs by the sea, turn off the Hana Highway just north of town and head to Wai'anapanapa State Park.
The 122-acre park has a small black-sand beach (too dangerous for swimming), a coastal hiking path that follows an ancient Hawaiian route, small coastal caves to explore, a campground and rustic cabins for rent.
Blue Pool and Kahanu Garden
The Blue Pool is a Hawaii fantasy come true. Take a 10-minute walk along a wild, rocky beach to a waterfall that spills down a fern-draped cliff into a natural rock pool. Swim in the safe, cool water as the waves break 20 feet away.
Nearby is the 120-acre Kahanu Garden, part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Walk through the palms — beware of falling coconuts — past demonstration gardens and along a seaside path.
The botanical garden includes Pi'ilanihale Heiau, the 500-year-old ruins of one of the largest temples in Hawaii (only the 50-foot-high temple platform of dry-stack lava rocks remains).
Wailua and Ke'anae
The Hana Highway feels long and winding as it continues north toward two traditional villages. Pull out at roadside viewpoints so you can safely look at the seascapes and the streams and waterfalls tumbling down the steep, green slopes of Haleakala. The volcano looms above, but its upper reaches are wreathed in clouds most days.
To get more of a feel of the land and local life, take side roads down to the villages of Wailua or Ke'anae, each just a 10-minute drive off the Hana Highway.
The villages are on some of the only seaside fingers of flat lands along the highway. Small houses are clustered around simple churches in these predominantly native Hawaiian settlements. Taro fields, banana trees and palms flourish.
Homeward bound
By the time the Hana Highway reaches Kailua, it's straighter and faster.
The feeling of magical remoteness, and old Hawaiian history, dwindles as you merge back into modern Maui, with its fast-food restaurants and shopping malls. You'll probably wish you'd spent more time along the roads to and from Hana.
Kristin Jackson can be reached at 206-464-2271 or by e-mail