HI Life - Maui Wowie Pt 2 - Desert in the Sky, Banana Bread, Lava Tubes and Venus Pools

Ok on to Part 2 of the Maui adventure! If you haven't checked out Part 1 here it is: HI Life - Maui Wowie Pt 1 - Jurassic Park, Bamboo Forest, and Nude Beaches

Mt Haleakala, once an active volcano, is the tallest peak on Maui, rising above the clouds at over 10,000 ft. But the cool thing about it is that you can actually hike inside the massive crater! I had heard a lot of good things about this hike coming into the trip so I was pretty pumped to check it out, and it did not dissapoint. After about an hour of driving up the mountain, we reached the peak and started our trek 

As always, a video is worth a thousand words, so here ya go ;)

Crazy looking scenary huh!?

It was a bit of a mind trip being in this desert-like terrain, yet also being well above the clouds. A desert in the sky. I'm not sure there's anything else like it. Nothing I've ever seen that's for sure! Then again I've never hiked inside of a volcano crater before. 

I think we had a day in between to relax and chill by the beach before our 2 day trip along the famous Road to Hana. Hana is one of the more remote towns on the island and the only way to get there is to drive a few hours along what might be the windiest road on the planet. We packed up our little dodge neon that we had rented and made our way there, stopping at several cool little waterfalls along the way. But I've written enough about waterfalls already so I won't bore you with those details. Plus I was lazy about taking photos that day. 

One of the cool things about the drive is all the banana bread stands along the way. The first one we hit was run by a cute little Thai lady named Kat. Covering the walls of her modest little shack were photos of her customers. I made a comment about that and she proceeded to show us pictures of a bunch of famous people who had been there, including Leonardo Dicaprio and his family. I didn't believe it at first but sure enough there he was. With all the celebrity pics littering her walls, of course Scott and I had to take one with her, which she assured she would bring to costco to have developed. Hope to see it up there the next time I pass through! :)

Along our way we stopped by the Hana Lava Tubes which were these cool lava caves you could swim through. Luckily I brought my headlamp so that we could see because it was really dark in there. Really cool though. It looked like a nondescript little pool inside of a cave, but Ben pointed out a tiny spot where you could swim under which opened up into a much larger cavern. It was really cool. And you would never know to do that if you didn't have some sort of a guide with you. We swam around and explored for like an hour, and probably would have stayed longer if the caves weren't so chilly and the water wasn't freezing cold. 

After a full day of driving, hitting cool stops along the way, and eating several loaves of banana bread we made it to our campsite in Hana in the early evening. As we pulled in, we noticed several prime spots in a row, overlooking the water. But as we circled around towards them we noticed a group of four girls chilling outside of their campsite and one empty spot next to them. As Chris began to drive past there was an uproar in the car, and so we pulled the most awkward 5 point turn off the narrow little path (as they presumably looked on) and proceeded to slide into the spot next to them. Slick. Turns out they had been camping for the last two nights and were happy to have the company.

The next morning we got up early and did some cool hikes, including one to a really cool looking cascade waterfall. 

But no Hana trip is complete without a trip to the Venus Pools. This was heavily hyped, and was the undisputed highlight of these two days and probably even my entire Hawaii trip. By far the coolest cliff jump I've ever done. It was about a 30 foot drop into a beautiful clear salt water lagoon below. You gotta see this!!!

So epic!!

HI Life baby!

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