Our third day on vacation we were going to Polipoli. Polipoli is on the side of Haleakala, the volcano on Maui. Polipoli is known for being the redwood forest on Maui. It’s beautiful to walk through the forest up there. I remember when LFD proposed to me in 2001 in a clearing at Polipoli, overlooking the ocean, we were above the clouds and could just see the tips of the volcanoes on the Big Island. It was picture perfect. This trip, Polipoli was just as beautiful, and I reminisced while we hiked. This time however a forest fire had consumed much of the forest. Crews had been through chopping down burned trees and we were told they are putting millions of dollars into reforestation in Polipoli.
Friday morning we woke up and started getting ready. We packed and waited for my brother to get home from the fire house. By the time we got our act together it was about 2 in the afternoon. A lot goes into preparing a camping trip for 4 adults and 3 kids under the age of 4. I was responsible for checking the lantern to make sure the batteries worked. I pulled it out from under the kitchen sink and a cockroach squirmed out. I freaked out, squealed and flailed my arms, and ran the box outside on the lanai (front porch). When I opened the box outside more cockroaches emerged. Fun times! I checked to make sure the lantern worked. It did. And I put it back in the box. Once the trucks were packed up we were off…to the grocery store.
We went to the grocery store to pick up the essentials and planned out our meals for the duration. There are no stores up at Polipoli. Nowhere even close. I enjoy the pre-camping shopping trips.
On the way up to Polipoli it’s some windy roads, and really requires a SUV of some sort. Pavement turns to deep rut plagued dirt road. More fun times!!! Along the drive looking back into the valley of Maui is so beautiful. You see the valley buzzing with activity in Kahului below and you are driving up the side of a volcano in such peace and quiet, it’s truly awe inspiring.
On the way up to Polipoli, we drove through the clouds and I couldn’t help but take pictures out the window of the car.
Check it out…it’s mistifying, right?
And here’s another one…
And another…Jack Ball on the antenna wanted to get in on the action…
Annnnnnnnnd still more…
And just one more of my favorite…
Also along the ride were cows. On the road there are cow guards across the road preventing the cows from leaving their designated area, other than that they have free range to roam wherever they want to. Like these guys…
And they can be further away from the road like this…
Or if they’re closer to the road it’s important when driving to not scare them or they’ll charge right into your car…
LF checked out the cows too…
As we arrived in the camping area and opened the gate to the cabin, we saw the cabin through the trees…
Here it is close(r) up…
Once we arrived at the cabin, you can see LF enjoyed relaxing while we made some lunch…
LF and her cousin played on the top bunk…
Uncle started a fire and gave LF a lesson in tough love when it came time to make sure she didn’t step foot near the hot stove…And yes, it gets cold in Polipoli. It was probably in the 40’s I would guess. Not so much during the day, although it’s not terribly warm during the day like the rest of the island, but it does get cold at night…
And then we went on a hike through Polipoli redwood forest…this is the camp grounds there…
…and just so you don’t get lost along the way…here’s the Polipoli map…
We hiked out on the peach color line to the right of where it says “You are here”…I think we wound up hiking just over a mile or so…here is the beginning of the trail…
You can see on the bottom of the trees how burned they are. When we hiked here in 2001, the forest was dense with brush, you wouldn’t have been able to see through the forest like it that picture above.
Here’s my brother and his family…
And here they are hiking…
I had LF on my back…here’s LFD hiking ahead of me…
A spider web…
This kind of gives you an idea of how consuming and big the forest feels while you’re walking through it…
Through the mist at the top of that picture is all forest. Amazing!
And this gives you a feel of how charred the forest is after being burned. They say it was a cigarette that started the fire. How they determine that, I have no idea.
And this just shows you how the reforestation is going…death of one tree and life given to a new one. It will take hundreds of years for that little sapling to grow to be the size of the one that is next to it that was cut down after being burned the life out of…
And, whether you want to find it or not, there is beauty in death…I wished I had a wide angle lens for my camera so you could truly take in the scene at this point in our hike. In a 180 degree view this picture portrays what you would’ve seen…
This was part of the trail going through the area above…
You can really see how everything was so burned, yet there are signs of new life all around. It will take many many years to even remotely be what it used to be.
This tree was totally burned, but still stands…
These two people melt my heart…is puddle on floor…send mop!
Moss grows like wild fire (no pun intended) in Polipoli…it’s so wet in Polipoli, it’s the perfect breeding ground for moss…
There were many opportunities to take some really artistic shots through the forest on our hike…
All the beautiful little signs of life…
And taking pictures just to show you the type of hike it was, and the unique trail we hiked on…
And how small I felt in the forest…
How mistifying the forest at Polipoli can be…
And how fragile the ecosystem is…
And no matter where we are…how sassy LF can be…
This is the very spot that LFD proposed to me in January of 2001…
Hey, wait…who’s that extra little person in the picture…she wasn’t there the last time…let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Oh, and I forgot, not far into the hike, my niece got cold and my brother headed back tothe cabin with her…we conitnued on with my SIL and my nephew…
Here’s part of the view from the spot where he proposed to me…
Down under the place where LFD proposed to me, is a cave, which we also visited while we were there in 2001. It’s cold and dark and I don’t go far in there, beacause I’m a little afraid of what might live in there, but we set the camera up to take a self timer picture of all of us…
We decided we better high tail it out of the forest…it was going to get adkr very fast at this point…
Here’s me and my nephew on the way back…
And here’s LF ont he way back…
A flower in the forest…
Log…
Some ashen bark…
We did make it back to the cabin just before sunset…but not by long…
That is Kahului in the very far off distance below…
Some tall pine trees in the sunset outside the cabin…
When we arrived back at the cabin, LFD had gone ahead of me and my SIL and nephew. He was back at the cabin abut 10 minutes before us. He had LF on his back and in backpack…We came back to fine this…
OUT COLD!!!
Well, a brief interlude…it was riiiiiiiiiiiiiight about this time…the sun was going down, dinner was being prepared, things were settling down for the night…we decided at this point we better get some flashlights out and grab that lantern I so diligently took backfrom the cockroaches from under the kitchen sink that morning at the house. My brother fired up(read: turned on the power switch) and a dull light (read: an ant’s flashlight would put out more light than this thing did) illuminated the cabin. It was pathetic. So, ok, the batteries? Not so much! They were going dead!!! In my defense, they only told me to make sure it worked, they did not tell me to make sure it would put out the light of a thousand suns, okay? Pfffft!!!!
That evening we huddled around the fire and cooked a family recipe (tallerini) for dinner and then celebrated my SIL’s birthday…she made her own cupcakes before leaving the house that morning!!!
Everyone helped blow out the candles…aren’t they cute?
Here’s my niece taking control of her cupcake…at first all dainty and stuff…
And then the cupcake monster came out…
(and that would be my brother in the background pouring the families evening glass of milk (I swear the way they go through milk, they should just take one of those cows back to their house from the side of the road up there!!!).
And here’s LF eating hers…
And I leave you with one more shot of LF before the end of the night…
And one more shot of her falling asleep in my arms around the fire place…
No, I didn’t make her go to sleep in her sneakers, but it was tampting. It was super cold!!! She was layered with clothes at this point!!! And there were extra blankets in her bed to keep her warm. At this point she still wasn’t in the sleeping groove yet from the jet lag, but it was ok…I loved snuggling with her when it was cold at night in bed.
We didn’t stay up terribly late that night, we were cold and knew we had a full day of more hiking ahead of us on Saturday. So here you have it. Day 3 of our vacation. How am I doing so far? Am I giving you enough detail? Too much detail? Do you want more pictures? Less pictures? If you do want to see the whole Hawaii set of pictures, I’m uploading them to Flickr as I write these posts. Feel free to take a look through as we go…
I’ll try my best to get day 4 up in the next day or two. Thanks for reading…hope I didn’t bore you!!!
I’m so happy you are doing this. It’s like I’m experiencing Hawaii from my desk!
I’m so loving this. Keep it up these are wonderful!!
Please don’t ask me to pick a favorite picture. I love your favorite. But, I love several of the forest shots.
I love them all.
I LOVE that you’re doing this series of posts!!
I have to ask, a) because I ask everyone and b) because I just have to: what kind of camera do you have?
I must have missed the flashlight/ant post? The cockroaches would have done me in. They come out at night and crawl around…OMG! squirm squirm
I could tell you were “down” about the fire in Polipoli… that is soo sad. Amazing how they can get right down to the exact cause. There’s no getting away!
Loving how much detail and effort you put into these posts. I don’t think you should change a thing. It’s like reading a picture book!
These photos are incredible! Some of the colors are to die for. =)
That is some amazing scenery….and amazing photos as well! Thanks for sharing.