Maui 3rd Day... The Hana Highway

Day 3

The Hana highway... the most horrible drive that I have ever been on (TWICE) but it is incredibly beautiful! The first time I drove this road was over 14 yrs ago.. and I told myself I wouldn't subject myself to that drive again but I caved and went again so that Brad and my family could have this experience. Here is what the road looks like in most places..


The Hana Highway is a 60 mile stretch of road that connects the small town of Hana to the rest of Maui. The Hana Highway winds its way past waterfalls, beaches, bridges and spectacular ocean views. The entire drive is a narrow 2 lane road with switchbacks that in places only allow one car to cross at a time. I can get terribly car sick and therefore narrow with switchbacks does not make for a good combination for me! After Hana, the highway becomes even more like a footpath than a road and heads to the Kipahulu Visitor Center at Haleakala National Park. I finally had to drive the last few miles to the 7 sacred pools and have to say it was less than spectacular. I guess hiking into Havasupai last May set the bar way to high for beautiful waterfalls!


Here are more pictures of the road to Hana and the one on the left shows how my mom and sister made it the long 3 1/2 hour drive by sitting on the back of the convertible, while unsafe gave them a lot more leg room! We were only driving 10 to 25 miles an hour.. that's ok right?

This picture is looking back at the road carved out of the mountain we had just driven on. I am bummed that there was a fire on the Big Island of Hawaii which made several of our photos hazy.

Here is the beach at the base of the 7 sacred pools. Soooo beautiful... maybe not so much Brad and I in our bathing suits but the scenery! :-)

The picture on the left is the bridge we drove over to get to the Haleakala National Park and then hike down to the pools. You can see 2 of the 7 pools on the left and then the 3rd one in the picture on the right. The other pools are really small and for some reason I didn't get a great photo of those.

The pictures below are at The black sand of Hamoa beach is one of our favorite beaches on Maui. The water was not too rough, there are no rocks in the surf, the crowds are minimal, and the scenery is amazing.

I was extremely car sick by the time we got back to where we were meeting for dinner. So my cute husband and wonderful sister missed dinner to take me back to the hotel. (After getting some ginger ale at the store and soup from Outback for me to eat.) I was also craving a turkey club sandwich, I know totally random! Brad and Jamie went on a search to all the restaurants at the hotel and finally found that I could have just ordered it via room service. I felt much better after eating and resting, but that was an extremely long day!

On a side note.. I was just thinking about my journey to motion sickness. I used to be really car sick growing up and then it got much better until a few years ago (except when I read while in a car). I was at Lagoon with my family and my friend Kristi when I started feeling sick from the motion on the rides. That had never happened to me before, I had been on these rides many times before. It was very strange, I even had to lay down on the grass for a while. I felt really embarassed but Kristi was super nice about it and my family took her around while I recovered. (We were in college at this time so yes it was ok my family left me alone.) I can still ride most rides at amusement parks just not ones that turn around in circles rapidly or dump me upside down for more than 15 sec. I know that was random but thought I would share.

I have so many things to blog about but I like to do them in order.. hopefully I will have the rest of Maui by the end of the week. I know.. promises, promises!

Anyone else have a problem with motion sickness?