Scenic Route to Lahaina

On day, we decided to approach Lahaina from the opposite direction.  Truly, it’s more scenic than commercial route we took a few days before.  I was curious about this drive, as I don’t believe I drove this route the last time I was in Maui, which was several, several years ago with my Mom.

One of the fun things about this drive was how close it felt at times to the water, albeit a few hundred feet down!!  It felt so isolated, like I would like to think Maui was years ago.

Over the Edge

As we drove around on this side of the island, I really got to feel how close these islands are.  As we looked out on this lovely view, it took me a minute to realize that I was looking at Molokai, an island next to Maui.  So close, and yet so far away!

Molokai in the Distance

One of the things that Jeff & I didn’t realize was how narrow and winding the road would be.  It was a bit unforgiving – one side was right up against a rock face and the other dropped off almost immediately into a long steep fall!  Apparently, the road was sort of chiseled out of the side of the rock face.

Narrow Winding Road

There is one thing that I never realized and never thought about when it comes to Maui – and that is that a fair portion of it seems to be devoted to ranching, with cattle and goats found from time to time, dotting the landscape.  This image isn’t the best – we were moving too fast for me to get a really clear shot – but I just sort of really liked the little egret sitting there among the cattle!

Egret & Cattle

Another thing we saw on a somewhat routine basis were hand-made memorials to someone who had died, presumably on that section of the road.  You’d be tempted to think this person accidentally drove off the cliff that this cross is standing on.  However, that cross is actually a bit of a ways from the road.  The person would have really had to drive quite a distance before going off.  Perhaps it was a favorite spot of someone’s instead.

Lonely Memorial

There was something about this fence that appealed to me.  I guess it reminds me of our home state of New Mexico, and the ranches there are out on the mesa.  However, none of the mesa’s back home have this view!

Fenced View

And, here’s another island in view in the distance!  If you look out past the jutting coast line, you will see a sort of grey hump of land in the distance.  After checking with the map, I’m pretty sure that’s the island of Lanai.  If I recall correctly, there are supposed to be some lovely golf courses on Lanai.  But, Jeff & I are not golfers, so I wouldn’t automatically take my word for it!

Lanai in the Distance

At some points, we did get out of the car to walk up close to the edge of the cliffs we were driving along.  In this one case, when I looked down, I realized that the water was so clear, I could see the lava rocks beneath the surface of the water.

 Clear Waters

At different points, I really liked to just watch how the different colors of blue played along the shoreline.  That light aquamarine turquoise blue just gets me to stop every time and sigh with delight!

Beautiful Shoreline

Along this part of the coast, is a fairly decent sized blowhole.  As the water from the ocean rushes in, it gets trapped under the rocks and sort of bursts out like a geyser from the blow hole.  There are at least a couple along the shore, but this one, the Nakalele Blowhole is just about the largest and tallest.  I realize that from this vantage point it doesn’t look all that large or tall.  However, in the lower left corner of this image, you’ll see a person walking.  That gives you a better perspective of the size of it!

Nakalele Blowhole

Another thing that we see so much, it’s fairly routine and almost invisible, are the lovely flowers all over!  I had to stop and capture this image of a hibiscus.  It was right along the path down which I was traveling, and almost reached out and tapped me on the shoulder!

Orange Red Hibiscus

As we passed over one of many, many bridges on this road, I noticed the peaceful flow of the water out to the ocean.  Jeff stopped the Jeep so I could take a photo of it.  When I did that, I thought to cross the road to photograph the other side.  Altho the water is flowing peacefully here, it’s quite the different scene!

View from Both Sides

Enjoy!