Stopping in at the small information center near the entrance, we learned there were two hikes you could do in the area. A very short one led to the Pools of Ohe'o -- or the Seven Sacred Pools -- a series of small waterfalls gently cascading through a string of ponds. The longer hike, around a four-mile round trip, led to Waimoku Falls. The former was our original plan, but the latter was what we decided to try first, while there were still several hours of sunlight.
The hike to the falls, along the Pipiwai Trail, seemed fairly brutal at first. It wasn't the incline; hiking most any 14'er in Colorado is likely to be more demanding. The heat, however, was rough. In the "summer in winter" Maui climate, I was soon wondering if we'd brought enough water. Not even half a mile in, we came upon an older man who was laying down exhausted on the trail. He assured us and several other passers-by that he didn't need any further help, but he certainly had me hoping this hike would prove worth it.
Soon, the scenery began to put my mind at ease on that front.
About halfway to the falls, the hike became much easier and even more scenic. We'd arrived at a thick bamboo forest.
The temperature dropped 10 degrees almost immediately as the hot sun overhead was blocked out.
The rest of the hike was as pleasant as it was beautiful. And when we reached the 400+ foot Waimoku Falls, it was every bit the amazing spectacle we hadn't gotten earlier in the day.
Of course, we had to pay homage to one of our favorite photos from vacations past:
I fear the photos don't do the falls justice, but perhaps this anecdote might. Just as we were leaving, a pair of young women came around the corner and laid eyes on the falls for the first time. They were Australians, we discovered, as one exclaimed, "Crikey!" As soon as we were out of earshot, Jacob laughed that this was the first time he'd ever heard anyone actually say that in real life. (The Crocodile Hunter's television appearances don't count.)
After such a beautiful hike, it was probably inevitable that the Pools of Ohe'o would be a bit disappointing. Though they're certainly situated in a tropical paradise of a valley...
...there's really not much to see, comparatively. You couldn't walk very far along the path of the stream. And while you could get in and swim (which we did), it was quite cold, and the water was too murky for you to see much.
With about an hour left before sunset, we started back along the road to Hana, the way we'd come. (We'd heard conflicting stories about whether 4-wheel drive was necessary to continue onward to the south, and decided not to chance it.) With darkness already descending, we just made it back to Wai'anapanapa State Park at mile marker 32, just on the nearer side of Hana. We'd wanted to stop there for another black sand beach we'd heard was there, but had missed the turn that morning. Fortunately, we'd seen Punalu'u on the Big Island, because any sand would have looked black by this point. It was a good place to stop for a vending machine Coke, though, to keep us alert for what remained ahead.
What remained, unfortunately, was another hour-and-a-half of "road to Hana" still to cover on the journey back -- and it was decidedly less fun in the dark than the morning drive had been. We did eventually get passed by a rabbit of a driver whose taillights we were then able to follow along the winding road back.
Once we were finally back in the city, dinner was well earned after all the hiking and driving.
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