Our first stop was to see the "Dragon's Teeth", or "Scales", or something like that. Apparently, these unusual formations were created when lava crashed violently into the wind-whipped ocean. Standing on the edge and feeling the pounding waves shake the rock outcroppings today, I believe the allegation.
Shortly after, we pulled over at a beach/park on the northern shore and stumbled upon a surfing competition.
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Something I forgot to mention before... apparently many whales spend their winters in Hawaii, many of them off the coast of Maui. Periodically, they can be seen breaching, spouting, and tail-slapping just off the coast. Today, I finally managed to catch a tail on video. Yesterday, we were able to watch them from the pool area at the hotel, traveling up the coastline in a small pack.
The next stop was a 1/2 mile hike down a cliff, to a blowhole at the edge of the ocean. It was so hot and sunny today, we wisely chose to wear bathing suits when we left this morning. So, we were able to cool off in the rain of seawater from the blowhole.
We stopped at a few other random beaches, too. (It seems that wherever you pull over, there just happens to be a beach, at least on the western shore.)
There was a heart-shaped pool down by the edge of the water, but the people there didn't seem to actually be in the water, and it looked pretty low, so we didn't hike down to take a closer look. That hike was even steeper than the hike to the blowhole, and neither of us had appropriate shoes, either.
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The further east we drove, the worse the road got. There is a section that is labeled (as is the southern section between Hana and the winery) a "don't drive here" zone on the map of Maui that the nice folks at Alamo gave us. Something like "driving on this road violates your rental agreement". Ha! Again, haven't they ever heard the expression "drive it like it's a rental"?
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The northern road that we travelled today was in better condition than the road down by the closed section, south of Hana, but it was closer to cliff edges, and narrower in some spots. Today, I witnessed several vehicles go uphill, in reverse, for about 1/4 of a mile, until the road was wide enough for opposing cars to pass.
Once we reached civilization again, we stopped at a state park way up in the hills, on the edge of the western-mountain crater, sort of. There's a formation that they call the "Iao Needle", which is all that's left of that part of the crater edge. I think one of the informative signs mentioned something about the "needle" being formed from harder lava than the surrounding parts, so it survived a few thousand years of erosion.
Towards the end of the loop, we stopped at a roadside park/beach for a quick swim.
Instead of driving past Lahaina, we went down Front street and stopped at a dive shop to rent some snorkel gear. Maui (apparently) has some of the best areas in the world to scuba/snorkel, and some of them are within walking distance of our hotel. Tomorrow, we complete our tour of Maui with a trip toward the southern part of the west coast, in the Wailea region.
Pictures start at the last photo on page 80.
Somehow I managed to get various parts of me sunburned, through SPF 30 sunscreen.
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