All Around Maui: King's Highway. April 29, 2002

Click for a detailed map Click for a detailed map Click for a detailed map At the southernmost point of Maui, nearly unpopulated by modern people, there is a fragment of an old footpath called King's Highway, which cuts through the a`a lava fields of Maui's most recent volcanic flows. The path is so named because it was constructed for the king in the days long before the United States stole Hawaii. The original trail length is estimated at 138 miles, but today only a few short fragments remain.

Anchialine pond

The brackish water in the ponds near Maui's south coast form refuges in the middle of a barren lava desert to a variety of unusual flora and fauna. The orange slime looks to me like a type of cyanobacteria (known in health food circles as blue-green algae, although only certain cyanobacteria species are blue or green). The three predominent species at this site are the orange slime, a bright green leafy plant that grows out of the water, and a kind of alga that grows in strands. The alga is visible in the third picture below.


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April 29, 2002. 12:17:54 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 12:18:46 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 12:21:53 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 12:22:26 PM.

Rough rocky ocean

A side trail off of the main path goes to a secluded beach of mixed eroded lava (black sand) and coral. I forgot to take a picture of the overall scene. The view west along the coast shows some nice cliffs. The four shots below are from a continuous shooting sequence, so you're looking at one wave approaching and breaking up against the cliffs.


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April 29, 2002. 1:04:09 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 1:04:10 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 1:04:11 PM.


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April 29, 2002. 1:04:12 PM.

Ants love to eat cockroaches

Shortly after discovering that we were sitting on a beach crawling with large, red ants, Monique discovered the source of the ants. Apparently they have their summer beachfront home in a hole right on this beach. There was a large dead cockroach just inside the opening of the ant home.

A`a "waves"

At the side of King's Highway, there is a row of three blocks of a`a, which formed into breaking waves of rock as it cooled. It looks quite a lot like breaking waves in the ocean. This pattern is fairly common for the cooling lava.