For our final day on Maui, we visited the parks along the western side of the island.  We started in Iao Valley State Park.  This park is nestled in the West Maui mountains and is just west of Wailuku.  We had hoped for some real hiking, but the trails are actually very short (the web site says about .6 mile).  The walk up the steps to the overlook of the “Needle” was well populated.  We actually liked the trails down to the river and through the rain forest better.  While we didn’t get the exercise we had hoped for, it…

If yesterday was about being off the beaten trail, today was  the beaten trail.  Fortunately, post-Labor Day and timed pretty well, we avoided the massive crowds relatively successfully on the famous Highway to Hana.  We found our map only moderately accurate and learned from some fellow Bostonians at their picnic table that their CD was also similarly unreliable… so…. our advice, just pull over if it looks cool and march around a little. At the recommendation of our previously un-named, now named (Brittany) unofficial tour guide, we skipped the Twin Falls turnout near the beginning of where Highway 36 turns to Highway…

For a good day trip, without as many crowds, in Maui we took the Kula Highway and the Piilani Highway to check out the sights of the Lualailua Hills and the base of the Kahikinui Forest.  These roads are on the south and west sides of Haleakala (the dormant volcano) and its much traveled Halekala Highway up to the crater.  The road eventually turns to dirt at Kaupo Ranch, but – in theory – does go through to Hana though traversing it all the way there is discouraged by rental car companies (whose advice it is probably best to take). We didn’t…