Maui is my favorite place in the world. When we were contemplating a trip to Hawai’i, Laralee and I agreed we had to go to Maui again. And of course the most magical part of the island is the Road to Hana, which is fifty miles of narrow roads, crazy winding turns, and the most amazing scenery anywhere.
Our first stop was the bamboo forest partway up the road. We stopped at the right mile marker and climbed out of the car. The kids were confused: “Are you sure this is the right place?” There’s no trailhead, in fact nothing at all to indicate there’s something to see. But when you look at the thick bamboo trees alongside the road, you’ll see a narrow dark hole that goes steeply down from the pavement. We stepped inside.
The trees are incredibly thick, making the forest dark.
The trail is steep, muddy, and not very well-defined. But we made our way down to a stream. The last time we’d visited, we could rock-hop across the stream to get to a series of waterfalls. However, it had been raining earlier in the day, so there was significantly more water. The stream was wide and deep, and we had to wade:
Fortunately we’d planned ahead and were all wearing swimsuits. (As it happened, we spent more than half our time in Hawai’i wearing swimsuits all day.) We crossed the stream and Alex found a place to achieve inner peace before we continued.
We found the first waterfall deep in the jungle, admired it for a bit, and then moved on to our real target, a second waterfall emptying into a big pool.
Of course we took advantage of a rope swing near the falls.
The kids posed by a different waterfall:
This is definitely one of my favorite hikes anywhere. The kids were thrilled, and asked if we’d be hiking through any more bamboo on our trip.
Yep.