Jonathan and Carrie were kind enough to share some hiking information…

I’ll put this in the review, but here are my thoughts on the hikes we took from your Suzanne Swedo Best Easy Day Hikes Maui book. I should add that although we walk a lot in the city, we’re not big hikers or campers or anything. I also don’t have the greatest balance. We basically took sun hats, and a water bottle, and headed out on the trail.

• ‘Iao Needle. Very cool. There are some trails off the main trail that are pretty interesting. The walk up to the top is a few flights of stairs and there are some inclines and declines if you want to check the whole place out. But pretty easy.
• Tropical gardens of Maui: dead easy, very beautiful, $5 per person charge. We saw lots of great foliage. Kids might get bored.
• Makele Blowhole. The most physically challenging on the ones we did. You’ve got to climb down a lot of rocks to get to the blowhole and then climb back up. Teenagers seemed to navigate it with no problem; my balance isn’t great so I found it a little challenging but in a good way. It was totally worth it. The blowhole itself is spectacular. Also, for people not inclined to white knuckle driving, it should be approached from the west. If you come from the east (Kahului, etc) you have to traverse some pretty sketchy mountain roads that are much more intense than the Road to Hana. The views are breathtaking, though.

We did all three of those in one day and had a picnic lunch.

• Garden of Eden. Get a little taste of the road to Hana on this one–you’re about 45 minutes in. This place seems very kid-friendly, lots of beautiful plants and views, and birds to feed. It rains there most afternoons as far as I can tell. Also a very easy hike.
• Twin Falls. We only did the right one as we didn’t want to walk through a stream. Most of the hike is very easy with a slight incline on the way out. At the end you’ve got to traverse some narrow elevated paths (if you fell off or stumbled, you’d get wet but not hurt) and scale a few rocks to get the falls and pool. Also beautiful, but I gather it’s a pedestrian waterfall for Maui.

We did those on the same trip.

• Olowalu petroglyphs. This one is the most different from the book. Not all the landmarks are there anymore, but some signs are up to guide you. The petroglyphs themselves are now protected and sort of fenced off. In the book the hike ends with you climbing up rocks to get to them; now you have to stand at the foot of the rocks and look up. The area itself is pretty ugly, and it’s an easy walk up a dirt road. If you’re into ancient art (we are), the petroglyphs themselves are super cool, and worth the easy trip, perhaps on the way to a day in Lahaina (we went there for lunch afterward). If not, skip it.