One of my very favorite parts of the trip was the last thing we did in East Maui before retracing our route on the road to Hana back to Central Maui: our reservation at Wai'anapanapa State Park, which is an amazing black sand beach, gorgeous cliffs, caves and a blowhole. You do have to reserve a fixed time to go here. We had a 7-10 am slot while the sun was rising. We could arrive anytime but had to leave by 10 am. Since we were packing up from our Hana VRBO, we didn't get there until closer to 7:30 but it was still pretty quiet until 8. A lot of these pictures are similar, but I loved each of them!
The black sand was mostly black pebbles. Along the water's edge they were very soft and smooth and I loved getting my feet buried and rinsed, buried and rinsed. Away from the pounding water, the rocks are larger and sharper, so had to go back and forth with my Keens. From the parking lot, you walk down a boardwalk/steps to the beach/cove. To the left of the beach you can hike back up to the cliff and overlook. To the right of the beach you can explore the caves. On top the caves is the blowhole. We got drenched by it and laughed and laughed! Then I was able to get a photo of it from the opposite cliff side. This was just a magical place!
