1. Last year in Maui we did three amazing hikes:

   The Iao Tablelands Vista hike (1.5 mile round trip) from "Maui Trailblazer" book, hike #25 (pp 87) starts at the overlook at the top of Iao Valley State Park. You have to hop over the railing to find the trail head behind the covered benches, ignoring the warning signs, and if you follow the guide book to keep on the right path, you can climb up a tree root to the top of a ridge with a beautiful view.

   From the parking lot down the road from the summit parking lot of Haleakala National Park you begin the Sliding Sands trail. We hiked down 1452 feet over 2.5 miles to the Ka Lu'u o ka O'o cinder cone inside the volcanic valley. The hike back up is the hard part, but if you're really good you can leave a shuttle car and hike down the whole way to meet the road.

   After taking the road to Hana you come to the O'heo Gulch, which is also part of Haleakala Park and your $10 entry ticket from there is good for entry and parking here. The Pipiwai Trail (4.25 miles round trip) leads up to Waimoku Falls, the tallest on Maui, plus you pass through an unbelievable bamboo forest.

   Keep in mind I did all these trails with a 30 lb toddler strapped to my back in a backpack, so you can do them too.

   In Maui they have a lot of outdated signs and so called rules they tell tourists, so you have to be willing to ignore these rules if you don't want to miss anything and avoid inconvenience. The most important rule to ignore is that you can't drive your rental car past Hana. When actually it is safer and faster to drive ALL THE WAY AROUND. Yes, there's a short stretch of gravel road, but unlike the return trip on the road to Hana, you are driving on the inside lane away from the ocean, and instead of the multiple one lane roads, all the way around there is ONE one lane section. That's right, one.

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