Our final day on Maui was spent on the famous Road to Hana, and it was a wild ride, to say the least. The Road to Hana is a winding, scenic drive that takes you along Maui’s lush east coast. It’s known for being narrow, curvy, and lined with about 60 one-way bridges—not exactly an easy-going drive. I had to take the wheel the whole time because I knew being a passenger would have made me way too motion sick. Even driving, I felt queasy at times! I’ve put some example photos of what the road was like below since I wasn’t able to take any pictures while driving. You had to stop for a lot of one-way bridges!

The road eventually turns into the Back Road to Hana, but a landslide had destroyed a bridge, so we had to turn around and go back the way we came. That meant navigating all those one-way bridges again! We followed our self-guided tour app closely, which helped a lot with planning our stops.

Our first real stop (after a couple of bathroom breaks and a fresh fruit stop) was to see the rainbow eucalyptus trees. These trees are actually invasive, originally planted as a fuel source for sugar cane mills. They’re still fascinating to see though, with their multi-colored bark creating a natural rainbow effect.

Next up was the town of Ke’anae, where we got some famous banana bread from Aunty Sandy’s. Even Gordon Ramsay has reviewed this place! The banana bread lived up to the hype—it was absolutely delicious. I’m pretty sure we bought the last of it because Amy snagged the final piece! After enjoying our snack, we took a walk along the rugged, rocky coast, which was formed by lava flow from Haleakala. The views were stunning.

For Gordon Ramsay’s review of Aunty Sandy’s, check out this video.

Our next stop was Wai’anapanapa State Park, home to a beautiful black sand beach. The sound of the waves washing over the pebbles was incredibly soothing. Jordan was the only one who went swimming, while the rest of us stayed dry for the rest of the day. I kind of regret not joining him because he had such a blast! We hiked up to a cliff to see another blowhole, and I spotted a sea turtle from the viewpoint, plus some black noddy birds nesting on the cliffs. There was even a chick! Seeing new birds always makes me so happy, and this might have been the highlight of my stop at Wai’anapanapa.

After that, it was time for the main event of the day—the Pipiwai Trail, which isn’t even in Hana but about 40 minutes past it. This 4-mile round-trip hike took us through a bamboo forest, past Makahiku Falls, and ended at Waimoku Falls. It has an elevation gain of about 900 feet, so it’s not an easy trek, especially when you’re speed hiking like we were! We spent too long at our earlier stops and needed to rush to finish the hike before dark. The trail can take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, but we managed to complete it in 1 hour and 25 minutes. Jordan was on a mission to kill me, but we made it to Waimoku Falls, and the view was so worth it! Even though I was completely exhausted, seeing that 400-foot waterfall up close was amazing.

By the time we finished, it was around 6:30 PM, so I had to drive part of the Road to Hana in the dark. It wasn’t as scary as I’d anticipated, though, since there was a lot less traffic at that time, and I could usually spot headlights coming up to the one-way bridges. Some locals were speeding along the road, but we just pulled off and let them pass.

We were absolutely wiped when we got back to the hotel, but luckily, Jordan’s parents had ordered us dinner from Monkeypod Kitchen in Whalers Village. We picked it up and split the pumpkin patch ravioli, macadamia nut-crusted fresh fish, and the seared ahi steak (tuna with jalapeno mashed potatoes and a soy sesame onion sauce). The ahi steak was probably my favorite ahi tuna dish of the whole trip—but I think I said that after every ahi meal, so who knows!

After this whirlwind day, we were more than ready for some rest before heading home.