Nakalele Blowhole & Olivine Pools

Rounding the top of West Maui, the road starts getting MUCH windier. Following our guidebook, we parked on the side of the road 1/2 mile past mile marker 38 to see the Nakalele Blowhole. When you walk straight out to the closest cliff area and turn to your right, you see the coastline pictured in the first picture. Then you walk down the rocky "trail" to your left (wear shoes or water shoes) to get to the blowhole. The best time to go is high tide. There are signs reminding you to watch your distance to the blowhole because you could get swept away by a wave. One sign states "This is not a waterpark". The blowhole is AWESOME! There is an undercut in the lava shelf at the shoreline here that creates water pressure and shoots it up. You can feel the ground rumble beneath you as the powerful ocean slams underneath. I couldn't get a picture with my phone, but I'll post pics of it when I return to the mainland. I would describe this as Hawaii's Old Faithful, except much less crowded and probably not as "faithful" in timing.

About 4 miles up the windy road, there is another parking area by mile marker 16 (the road restarts here and counts down now). Looking down the hills side, you see the Olivine Pools. These are naturally formed lava pools in the lava shelf. Olivine is the name of the shiny gems you find in the lava rock here. We hiked down the rocky hill side, passing signs that try to scare you away-saying "Don't Go Beyond This Point". I definitely wouldn't go down there if the waves were really rough or a storm was coming in, but it was a calm day. There were about 3 main pools (last picture) that were very warm from the sun. One pool was even deep enough to jump off a rock into it! There were even little fishies in the pool to join us! Very relaxing!