Waterfalls of Na`ili`ili-haele. March 30, 2003

All Around Maui: Waterfalls of Na`ili`ili-haele. March 30, 2003

This hike is in the Adventures section of my favorite Maui guide book, Maui Revealed. There are four accessible waterfalls. Getting past the second requires scaling a 12-foot vertical rock face. Fortunately, there is a rope to assist, if you trust it. We didn't attempt it, considering our huge load of camera equipment and The Boy Who Must Be Carried.

A USGS topographical map shows four pools of water upstream of the four waterfalls that the guide book covers. The four discussed waterfalls don't form pools large enough to show up on the 1:24,000 scale map. This means to me that there are even greater riches awaiting the truly insane hiker.

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The early part of the hike is through a typically-dense bamboo forest. The greenish cast on our faces is there because most of the light down there is reflected off of bamboo. It was really dark. You don't notice the greenish cast with your naked eye while there.

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We paused in the middle of Kailua Stream for lunch. The rest of the hike follows this stream. The four waterfalls you can see are part of this stream. The water isn't normally brown, but we had been having a lot of rain recently.

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This falls doesn't count of one of the four. This is a tributary entering Kailua Stream.

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Here is the first falls of the hike that is on Kailua Stream. Shame about the brown water. Tree didn't care, so I had to go in. If you view this image at one of the larger sizes, you can see me sitting on top of the waterfall.

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Monique had to snap this picture of me pulling up Tree's pants.

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I told Tree that there was a "scary lion" over there in the bushes, to get him to look. So he looked . . . real concerned.

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This is the second waterfall. Quite nice. Even better with clear water, I bet.

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Bamboo frames a moss-covered rock.