Nakalele Blowhole & Heart-Shaped Rock
Danger and romance in Maui! From Lahaina, drive north on Highway 30 (Honoapi’ilani Highway) through Kaanapali. After leaving the resort areas (and the traffic!) continue on Highway 30 for some spectacular scenery–you’re literally hugging the side of the cliff. The road goes up. The road goes down. Beautiful ocean views abound.
At Nakalele Point you can walk to the Nakalele Blowhole and a rock that looks like it has a “heart” cutout. Between mile markers 38 and 39, you’ll come to a pull out. We parked there first and then spotted a sign telling us that parking for the blowhole was still a half-mile down. So we went down to the second pull out and parked there.
At the top, there is a warning sign about the blowhole. Heed it! Like the sign says, it’s not a water park. There’s a small hike to the bottom to see the blowhole. I would recommend wearing sneakers or boots for this as there is a little bit of rock scrambling…I did it in flip-flops and it wasn’t easy.
Nakalele Blowhole, Maui
What is a blowhole? Underneath the surface, in the sea caves below, waves eventually wore a hole in the rock surface. Water gets sucked up from the sea caves and it comes out of the hole at the surface and then gets pulled back down.
It’s beautiful, but it is dangerous. There has been at least one death and several injuries–not just from the blowhole, but from large waves, too. So keep a safe distance and watch.
Nakalele Blowhole, Maui
When facing the ocean near the blowhole, it you look over to the right you’ll find the beautiful rock that has what looks like a heart cut-out. Romantic!
Heart-Shaped Rock, Nakalele Point, Maui
Some tourists think that continuing on the highway towards Kahului (Highway 30 becomes Highway 340) instead of backtracking towards Lahaina amounts to a shortcut. Be forewarned! The road deteriorates and basically becomes a one-lane path against the cliff with just the ocean below.
For more pics, check out my Flickr album.
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