At the Makena - La Perouse State Park, Maui

Some days you feel like taking the back road. Today was such a day. After a long soak in the ocean that left us feeling exfoliated :-), and being beaten by the surf, at the Makena “Big” beach, we decided against going back to West Maui immediately. After all, the road did continue south, and we did not know what waited there. It got narrow as we went on, and soon we were onto a lava field. Turned out that this was the remnants of the 1790 eruptions of Haleakala. In the distance, you could see the cinder cones. Today the area is out-of-bounds for hiking and conserved under the Ahihi-Kina’u natural underwater preserve.

The 1790 lava flow

No walking on Ahihi-Kina'u natural underwater preserve

As we continued south, we hit the ocean again. The lava flow gave way to rocky shoreline. The color of water was now an amazingly beautiful turquoise. The road ended. But it was worth just sitting around there, soaking in all the colors of paradise.

The rocky shores of La Perouse bay

M and R at La Perouse bay

Colors of Paradise!