Maui Day Trip – the Iao Valley and the Nakalele Blow Hole

Last updated on November 20th, 2017 at 03:11 am

One day during our August travels, Mr. Jeffsetter informed me that he needed to get some work done. I decided to go our exploring rather than sit outside and read a book. I ended up at the Iao Valley and the Nakalele Blow Hole.

I packed a lunch with a lot of water, grabbed my camera, hopped into my 2004 Nissan Sentra, rolled down the windows, turned up some Warren G and drove off to my destination.

A half an hour later, I arrived at the Iao Valley State Park. I read on the internets with my google credits that there was a nice hike along the river, so I wanted to check it out. I parked in the state park lot ($5 or you can park for free on the side of the road right outside the state park), and started walking to the Iao Needle.

The trails by the river were closed. I am not sure if this was temporary due to the storms (e.g., Guillermo) and the potential for flash flooding. Sad emoji. The whole walk around the park took about thirty minutes.

However even for thirty minutes, the picturesque vegetative Iao Valley is worth a stop. My photos do not do justice to the scenery and beauty of the valley.

If you need to spend more time to make it worth your while, then you can play in the river and eat lunch on the boulders.

I suggest going early in the morning to avoid the afternoon clouds and the bus loads of tourists (they were arriving as I was leaving).

Be sure not to leave anything in your car, this applies to most places in the Hawaiian islands (more on this point in a future post).

Be careful of open wounds and going in the river because of the leptospirosis bacteria (from animal urine) that can be present in Hawaiian freshwater.

Right next to the Iao Valley State Park is a culture park with gardens built for various countries (European, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean) that have influenced the development and culture of Hawaii. I stopped her for a stroll and to figure out my next move.

The park has several picnic shelters and grills. Another great spot for lunch, if the river is too crowded or you don’t want to sit on rocks at the Iao Valley State Park.

Unfortunately, the pool is closed, but is a creepy kind of cool.

At about 11:30am, I finished with my walk around the Iao Valley State Park and the cultural park. This meant I am super efficient, and still had 4 hours until I was allowed to bother Jeff. Time to contemplate my next move.

I decided to go see the Nakalele Blowhole because it was not on the “do not go to these attractions with out Mr. Jeffsetter” list that we gathered from Kyle’s Maui guide.

Google Maps kept telling me to go back around to Lahaina to reach the Nakalele Blowhole. What?!

Whatever Skynet Google, I live by my own rules. I am going this way.

Back in the Sentra (Bertha) with the windows rolled down, I turned up the radio, wished No Scrubs was playing instead of Ke$ha and headed off, my way.

I soon discovered a one lane, two way traffic, windy, mountainous cliff, death trap, and why Google suggested I go the other way.

After about 10 miles on the road of death, white knuckled, shoulders aching from tensely driving around several blind ninety degree corners wondering if this was the end, I stopped to relax and take in the beauty of the coastline.

My saving grace on the road of death was my rental car, Bertha. The 2004 Sentra had all those 2015 Jeep Wrangler/Mustang or Camaro Convertible tourists heading straight at me thinking I was playing a rousing game of chicken in my oldie but a goodie car. This allowed me the right of way multiple times.

After another 2 white knuckle miles, I stopped for a stretch again at a random waterfall.

Another 2 miles and another breather.

Almost there.

Two hours later and feeling like I aged 10 years, I arrived unscathed and full of adrenaline at my destination.

From my parking spot at the road, I could hear waves crashing.

This is going to be good, if you like waves, cliffs, sunshine and fresh air. Clearly, this will suck if you hate all fun and beauty, so don’t waste your time.

Walking over to the “path” down to the blow hole, you are formally greeted with the following sign:

You can see the “path” to the left of the sign. Heading down the “path” you will see a second sign and the blowhole in the background:

Finally, I reached the blowhole. This photo was taken from a spot just passed the second sign. I left the people in the photo for scale.

What!? That is huge! I sat on a rock, ate my lunch and watched the power of the ocean. I could watch waves all day long. Finishing my lunch, I walk down to the left of the blowhole. The ocean was fierce that day.

I was on “dry rock,” but was pretty damp from the wind blowing the spray. Jeff has told me that vertical (portrait) pictures look stupid on websites. The blowhole was just too high for horizontal photos (landscape), so whatever (I live by my own rules).

To the right of the blowhole, you can see the heart shape hole in the rock.

Soaked with sweat and salt water mist, I headed back to the condo (taking the hwy through Lahaina and avoiding death trap road). I arrived back at the condo exclaiming with excitement to Mr. Jeffsetter, “You HAVE to go see the blowhole. It is amazing,” while trying to show him pictures on my salt crusted camera screen. Mr. Jeffsetter was not impressed (or annoyed that it wasn’t quite 4pm).

After days of me talking up the Nakalele Blow Hole, the Jeffsetters took the road of death to the blowhole for a second time. Mr. Jeffsetter will post his pictures in another post to show the difference a day can make.

Spoiler Alert: weak sauce.

If you are on Maui and want an adventure, we highly recommend the Iao Valley and Nakalele Blowhole. We liked it even better than the famed Road to Hana, which we will write about in another post.