Top Trails: Maui: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

Top Trails Maui: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

1st EDITION 2011

Copyright © 2011 by Sara Benson

Front cover photos copyright © 2011 by Debra Behr/Alamy (main); Michael Connolly, Jr. (inset)

Interior photos by Sara Benson and Michael Connolly, Jr.

Maps: Sara Benson and Lohnes+Wright

Cover and interior design: Frances Baca Design and Larry B. Van Dyke

Layout: Larry B. Van Dyke

Editor: Laura Shauger

ISBN 978-0-89997-625-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

Visit our website for a complete listing of our books and for ordering information.

Distributed by Publishers Group West

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations used in reviews.

SAFETY NOTICE: Although Wilderness Press and the author have made every attempt to ensure that the information in this book is accurate at press time, they are not responsible for any loss, damage, injury, or inconvenience that may occur to anyone while using this book. You are responsible for your own safety and health while in the wilderness. The fact that a trail is described in this book does not mean that it will be safe for you. Be aware that trail conditions can change from day to day. Always check local conditions, know your own limitations, and consult a map.

To Ranger Mike Jr., always a lifesaver, and his mule Lucky

The Top Trails™ Series

Wilderness Press

When Wilderness Press published Sierra North in 1967, no other trail guide like it existed for the Sierra backcountry. The first print run sold out in less than two months, and its success heralded the beginning of Wilderness Press. Since we were founded more than 40 years ago, we have expanded our territories to cover California, Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Southeast, New England, Canada, and Baja California.

Wilderness Press continues to publish comprehensive, accurate, and readable outdoor books. Hikers, backpackers, kayakers, skiers, snowshoers, climbers, cyclists, and trail runners rely on Wilderness Press for accurate outdoor adventure information.

Top Trails

In its Top Trails guides, Wilderness Press has paid special attention to organization so that you can find the perfect hike each and every time. Whether you’re looking for a steep trail to test yourself on or a walk in the park, a romantic waterfall or a city view, Top Trails will lead you there.

Each Top Trails guide contains trails for everyone. The trails selected provide a sampling of the best that the region has to offer. These are the must-do hikes, walks, runs, and bike rides, with every feature of the area represented.

Every book in the Top Trails series offers:

Contents

Maui Regional Map

Maui Trails Table

Using Top Trails

Organization of Top Trails

Choosing a Trail

Introduction to Maui

Geography

Geology

Flora

Fauna

When to Go

Trail Selection

Features & Facilities

Multiple Uses

Trail Safety

Camping, Cabins & Permits

Note from the Author

On the Trail

Have a Plan

Carry the Essentials

Useful but Less than Essential Items

Trail Etiquette

Appendix 1: Top-Rated Trails

Appendix 2: Major Public Agencies & Nonprofit Organizations

Appendix 3: Maps, Books & Internet Resources

Appendix 4: Local Guides, Tour Operators & Hiking Clubs

Appendix 5: Outdoor Gear, Supplies & Food

Author

Using Top Trails™

Organization of Top Trails

Top Trails is designed so you can find the perfect trail and make every outing a success and a pleasure. With this guide it’s a snap to find the right trail, whether you’re planning a major hike or just a sociable stroll with friends.

The Region

At the front of this guide, the Maui Map provides a geographic overview of the island, and shows the areas covered by each chapter.

The adjacent Maui Trails Table lists every trail covered in the guide along with attributes for each trail. A quick reading of the regional map and the trails table gives you a quick overview of the entire region covered by this guide.

The Areas

The region covered in each book is divided into areas, with each chapter corresponding to one area in the region. Each area chapter introduction starts with information to help you choose and enjoy a trail every time out. Use the table of contents or the regional map to identify an area of interest, then turn to the area chapter to find the following:

The Trails

The basic building block of the Top Trails guide is the trail entry. Each one is arranged to make finding and following the trail as simple as possible, with all pertinent information presented in this easy-to-follow format:

Some trail descriptions offer additional information:

In the margins of the trail entries, keep your eyes open for graphic icons that signal features mentioned in the text.

Choosing a Trail

Top Trails provides several different ways of choosing a trail, using easy-to-read tables and maps.

Location

If you know in general where you want to go, Top Trails makes it easy to find the right trail in the right place. Each chapter begins with a large-scale map showing the starting point of every trail in that area.

Features

This guide describes the Top Trails for the island of Maui. Each trail has been chosen because it offers one or more features that make it appealing. Using the trail descriptors, summaries, and tables, you can quickly examine all the trails to find out what features they offer, or seek a particular feature among the list of trails.

Season & Condition

Time of year and current conditions can be important factors in selecting the best trail. For example, an exposed low-elevation trail may be lush and cool (especially during winter) on the windward side of the island, but an oven-baked taste of hell come late summer or early fall on the leeward side. Where relevant, Top Trails identifies the best and worst conditions for the trails you plan to hike.

Difficulty

Every trail has an overall difficulty rating on a scale of 1 to 5, which takes into consideration length, elevation change, exposure, trail quality, and more to create one (admittedly subjective) rating.

The ratings assume you are an able-bodied adult in reasonably good shape using the trail for hiking. The ratings also assume normal weather conditions—clear and dry.

Readers should make an honest assessment of their own abilities and adjust time estimates accordingly. Also, rain, snow, heat, wind, and poor visibility can all affect the pace on even the easiest of trails.

Vertical Feet

Every trail description contains the approximate trail length and the overall elevation gain and loss over the course of the trail. It’s important to use both figures when considering a hike; on average plan one hour for every 2 miles, and add an hour for every 1000 feet you climb.

This important measurement is often underestimated by hikers when gauging the difficulty of a trail. The Top Trails measurement accounts for all elevation change, not simply the difference between the highest and lowest points, so that rolling terrain with lots of up and down is identifiable.

The calculation of vertical feet in the Top Trails guides is accomplished by a combination of trail measurement and computer-aided estimation. For routes that begin and end at the same spot—i.e., loop or out & back—the vertical gain exactly matches the vertical descent. With a point-to-point route, the vertical gain and loss will most likely differ, and both figures are provided in the text.

Finally, all Trail Entries with more than 1000 feet of elevation gain include an elevation profile, an easy means for visualizing the topography of the route. These profiles graphically depict the elevation throughout the length of the trail.

Surface Type

Each trail entry describes the surface of the trail. This information is useful in determining what type of footwear is appropriate. Surface type should also be considered when checking the weather—on a rainy day early or late in the hiking season a dirt surface can be a muddy slog; a boardwalk jaunt or a paved surface might be a better choice.

Top Trails Difficulty Ratings

Bird life thrives at the high-elevation summit of Haleakala volcano.

Introduction to Maui

Hiking may not be what most people come to Hawaii to do. But don’t let that stop you. Amazing trails crisscross the island, from meditative coastal beach walks to heady treks high atop a volcano. Hidden in cloud forest, more trails lead to tumbling waterfalls, hidden springs, and groves of bamboo that rustle musically in the Pacific trade winds. Back down on the coast, you can watch water spout through natural lava-rock blowholes and sea arches, take a dip or snorkel in ocean pools, and encounter deserted beaches to be savored in solitude. You can also wander across lava flows that feel primeval, examine ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs up close, or follow the King’s Highway that Hawaiian royalty once trod. All this and more awaits on Maui’s hiking trails, most of which are easily accessible day trips. No matter where you base yourself on the island, any of the dozens of trailheads pinpointed in this book is at most a couple hours’ drive away, and often far closer than that. It’s a hikers’ paradise.

Geography

The Hawaiian Islands are the most geographically isolated landmass on earth, located about 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, North America. Hawaii sits at the apex of the Polynesian triangle, with the other two points positioned at Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and New Zealand (Aotearoa), both of the latter in the South Pacific. Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands (after the aptly nicknamed Big Island of Hawaii), with a total land area of 729 square miles and around 120 miles of coastline.

The island of Maui can be split roughly into two pieces. Smaller and shaped like a baseball, the northwestern section of the island is carved by the West Maui Mountains, which are cut by streams and valleys that are mostly inaccessible. Luckily, a few trails lead into the lush interior of the range, which tops out at Puu Kukui (elevation 5788 feet), the second wettest place in Hawaii, which receives more than 385 inches of rainfall annually. Only Kauai’s Mt. Waialeale gets more precipitation each year. Lower elevation ridge climbs on Maui provide sweeping vistas of the Pacific and postcard panoramas of other Hawaiian Islands, while the island’s drier west coast offers plenty of beach walks and strolls.

Shaped like an arrowhead, the larger southeastern section of the island of Maui is dominated by Haleakala volcano. With elevations ranging from sea level to 10,023 feet at the summit, this side of Maui offers hikers an enormous variety of terrain: tropical rain and cloud forests, aa (rough, jagged) and pahoehoe (smooth, unbroken) lava flows, rainbow-colored cinder deserts, and more. The windward east coast, especially around Hana, is famous for its pooling waterfalls, including at Kipahulu inside Haleakala National Park. Connecting the two sides of the island of Maui are coastal wetlands, where diverse native and migratory birds take refuge.

Geology

The Hawaiian archipelago measures 1,600 miles long and comprises more than 130 scattered points of land, including islands, islets, reefs, shoals, atolls, and underwater seamounts. Part of the Hawaiian Ridge–Emperor Seamount chain, as well as the much larger Pacific Ring of Fire, all of these islands are volcanic in origin. They slowly arise from columns of molten lava that build up on the ocean floor until eventually emerging above the ocean’s surface, a process that takes eons. This process happens as the Pacific Plate moves northwest over a hot spot in the earth’s mantle at the rate of just a few inches each year. Today, the Big Island of Hawaii straddles that hot spot, which accounts for its ongoing volcanic activity, notably at Kilauea Volcano inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Having long since drifted away from the hot spot, Maui’s volcanic activity has probably come to an end, although Haleakala—believed to have erupted most recently in the 1790s—is technically still an active volcano. Scientists continue to monitor Haleakala for signs of an eruption, which is possible even after hundreds of years of seeming inactivity.

Ancient volcanic activity is unearthed in Haleakala’s eroded summit area.

The island of Maui comprises two separate volcanoes joined together by ancient lava flows: the still-active Haleakala, which dominates East Maui’s topography, and the now-extinct Puu Kukui that formed the West Maui Mountains. Both volcanoes were (and continue to be) shaped by the forces of erosion, namely wind, water, and time. In the case of Haleakala, precipitation at the volcano’s summit, which traps moisture-laden trade winds, formed streams that cut channels down its slopes to the sea. What is left today at the volcano’s summit is an erosional valley, popularly misnomered as Haleakala’s crater, even though it’s not the product of a volcanic eruption. Another factor in the slow erosion of Hawaiian volcanoes, including those on Maui, is size: They slowly crush themselves under their own weight, eventually becoming underwater seamounts once again—just as they started out more than 70 million years ago.

For hikers, Maui’s geological history provides a terrifically varied playground of terrain to explore. Keep in mind that the drama of plate tectonics can cause both earthquakes and tsunamis across the archipelago, although major events are rare. The majority of earthquakes in Hawaii take place on the Big Island, with minor shocks sometimes felt on Maui. The last locally generated tsunami occurred in 1975 following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that jolted the Big Island. Seismic activity as far away as Australasia or Alaska can also cause tsunami events in the Hawaiian Islands.

Flora

Like Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands in South America, the Hawaiian Islands spectacularly demonstrate Darwin’s theory of adaptive radiation. All plant life that took root in this Polynesian archipelago originally arrived after drifting thousands of miles on the wind, the waves, or the wings of birds. Upon taking root, each type of plant had to adapt to its new environment, ultimately resulting in a rainbow of new species that are found only in this isolated island chain. In fact, botanists estimate that today there are at least 200 types of wild tree ferns alone growing here.

Starting around AD 500, the earliest human settlers arrived in long-distance seafaring canoes, bringing with them food and medicinal plants from elsewhere in Polynesia, including taro, coconuts, bananas, and sugarcane. Fast forward to the 19th century, when European, American, and Asian traders introduced exotic species into the fragile ecosystem of the Hawaiian Islands, while Hawaiians profitably harvested nearly all of the islands’ sandalwood forests for export to China. Some of the newly introduced species of flora proved to be invasive, and today even more exotic plants arrive in Hawaii each year (e.g., in shipping containers or unwittingly stowed away in tourists’ luggage). Other environmental threats include logging, grazing, agriculture, and tourist development. Today, Hawaii has the highest species extinction rate in the U.S. It is estimated that the islands have already lost almost half of their native forest cover.

But the news is not all bad. There is still an amazing diversity of flora for hikers to see on Maui, whether strolling on the beach or hiking deep in the rain forest, where wild orchids and ginger grow. Best of all, flowers bloom year-round in the Hawaiian Islands. The following are thumbnail descriptions of just a few of the most common plants seen along the island’s hiking trails. See recommended field guides.

The rarest plant of all is the threatened silversword. On Maui, silverswords only grow in the summit area of Haleakala volcano, where the plant’s shiny silver leaves have adapted to reflect the intense solar radiation of high elevations from 7000 to 10,000 feet above sea level. Although a single plant can grow for up to 50 years, it blooms only once, at the end of its life cycle, when it shoots up a stalk of maroon blossoms before going to seed and dying. Another plant you’ll find at high elevations in Haleakala’s summit region is the ohelo shrub, which has serrated green leaves. A member of the cranberry family, its