The road to Hana is one of the most scenic drives in America. In the early days of Hawaii it was a 5 foot wide trail. Modern road construction to Hana began in the 1870s. An unpaved road was built to help with the construction of the Hämäkua Ditch which was part of The East Maui Irrigation System. This ditch brought water from the rainforests to dry central Maui to support the sugarcane industry. Parts of the ditch are still visible from the current road.
The road construction continued in the early 1900s until the full road to Hana was opened on December 18, 1926. Construction of bridges continued through the 1930s and the road was not completely paved until the 1960s. Many of these old one lane wide bridges are still in use.
Today the Hana Highway is a 52 mile stretch which connects Kahului with the town of Hana. It takes about 2.5 hours to drive non-stop as the highway is very winding and narrow and passes over 59 bridges, 46 of which are only one lane wide. There are approximately 620 curves along Route 360 from just east of Kahului to Hāna.
This is the rainy side of the island and the road is at times in the dark, tropical forest and at other times clinging to the edge of brilliant blue coves. It is best to leave early before traffic gets heavy and backs up. It is much easier to drive when the majority of the cars are going in the same direction. Some of the two lane road is actually about one and a half.
The app that Rick found which gave us a tour of Haleakala also accompanied us to Hana. It was helpful to know when good overlooks were coming up and where the rest stops with bathrooms were. We followed these directions to Wai'anapanapa State park which had a black sand beach. Although I have been on this road a couple times I don't think I ever stopped at this pretty spot before.
We continued on to Hana after lunch and enjoyed the pretty little town on a quiet cove. The drive is mostly about the experience of the beautiful rainforest and scenic overlooks and not much about the destination. It is not a road for those who suffer from motion sickness or who hate high bluffs and narrow bridges.
On the way back the tour guide on the app gave us a short history of the Hawaiian people and some of the political process that was involved in making Hawaii part of the United States. I am curious to learn more. We also learned that there are no squirrels in Hawaii just a small variety of mongoose. We saw breadfruit growing on trees and an avocado that was the size of a large grapefruit.
We had a glass of wine, a homemade spaghetti dinner and then said "mahalo" for a great day with the nightly conch ceremony. Another wonderful day in paradise.
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