Hawaiian Family Vacation Day 3

Date: February 20th, 2026

The forecast called for rain, but it rains almost everyday in Hawaii, at least for a short spell, so we didn’t let the forecast stop us from our reservations to Wai’anapanapa State Park near the end of the Road to Hana. We even wore our swimming clothes, anticipating that we’d be able to get under a waterfall or into the ocean at the black sand beach.

We had a half-hour drive to Paia, the town right before the start of the Road and stopped at Cafe Mambo there for some acai, bobba, and coffee to fuel up before we started the voyage.

Jill and I had done the Road to Hana 20 years earlier on our honeymoon, but the road was in a lot better shape than I remembered. Back then we had to sign a waiver saying we wouldn’t take our drop-top Chrysler Sebring rental car on the Road to Hana, but we rolled the dice and took the trip anyway. This time around, we rented an SUV from Turo so there was no waiver to not drive the Road.

Not long after snaking along the coast of Maui on the road, it started raining and did so intermittently for the rest of the trip. We had planned to stop at the Twin Falls at mile marker 2, but we missed it, saying we would stop on the way back. We found a few other places to stop including one for fresh banana bread (still warm), but because the road is so windy, it’s kind of hard to tell what is coming up around the next corner, but he views were beautiful nearly everywhere you looked. Expect to drive along waterfalls, see bamboo forests, rainbow trees, road-side shops, and overlook the Pacific throughout your drive.

One of the places we stopped at was a cool looking botanical garden by the name of Garden of Eden. It look pristinely landscaped and well taken care of, but as we pulled along side of the ticket booth, we realized we would have to spend about $70 for our group to explore the gardens. It was a bit steep for us, so we completed a U-turn and made our way back to the Road. It is in this area that we saw our first rainbow eucalyptus trees. It’s name comes from the multi-colored bark on the trees that display shades of bright green, purple, orange, and blue.

When we finally saw signs for Waianapanapa State Park, it wasn’t clear to us where we were supposed to go. The signs said Waianapanapa State Park Cabins and Camping, and all we had planned to do was hike and sightsee. We followed the camping signs thinking there would be someone that could point us in the direction of the trails and black sand beach if we were indeed in the wrong place.

It turned out we made it to the right place. We showed the park attendants our reservation slip and found a place to park. It was a dreary day but we decided to bring our towels and swim gear just in case we wanted to take a swim. Once we were able to see the beach from overhead, we knew swimming probably wasn’t going to happen. There were huge swells of waves crashing against the cliffside and on to the beach.

We made our way down to the beach, dodging the many other visitors and a few cats to find that the black sand was more black pebbles or pea gravel than sand. The beach had a cool cave to the right/east and a hiking trail to the left/west.

We watched the waves crash against the rocks for some time and kept a lookout for monk seals, since there were signs requesting to leave them alone if we did. Mattix and I continued along the trail that climbed the cliff and saw sea foam floating in the air. The waves crashing against the black cliffs was quite breathtaking. We didn’t get too close to the edge for fear of getting soaked or swept away by a large wave breaking over the top of the cliff we were on.

Mattix and I hiked around the cliffs for a bit, but after we didn’t see the girls for quite some time, we made the trek back to the beach and checked out the cave before heading to the parking lot. Mattix got his kitty fix by petting a few of the many felines that call the park home before we caught up with the girls who were already having lunch on the tailgate of our rented SUV. We had sandwiches and Maui Style potato chips which became a family favorite for the rest of the trip. One of the cats stopped by and we shared some of our scraps with it and later saw a mongoose in the parking lot!

Charlie was anxious to get back in time to watch the Bosco boys substate basketball game that her boyfriend was playing in, so we started the trip back. We stopped at the Twin Falls on our way home but right as we pulled in and were preparing to pay for parking, it started to downpour. Since we wanted to make sure we were back in time for the game and we would’ve gotten soaked if we did hike to the falls, we decided to not pay the $10 for parking and just start the trek back to our Condo. 

The Bosco boys had a decent game but ended up losing, which ended their very entertaining season. That night we had leftover tacos and improvised some quesadillas for dinner before walking down to the beach to watch the sunset and plumes from the Humpback Whales. We treated ourselves to some ice cream and gelato from Maui Gelato and Waffles for dessert then made our way back “home”.