Maui Vacation : Madison WI Personal Brand Photography | Senior Pictures

Maui Vacation

Posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Today I’d like to share with you just a small fraction of photos (I have about 2000 of them) that I took during our Maui vacation last June. We all agreed that this was our best family trip so far: magnificent seascapes, exotic hiking trails, countless waterfalls, bamboo and rain forests, cloud covered slopes of Haleakala volcano, snorkeling with giant turtles, lava rock fields, awesome beaches and one of the most beautiful drives in all Hawaii. Maui exceeded all of our expectations.

Every day we explored different part of the island and every day encountered something new and fascinating. This peaceful, watercolor morning greeted us on our first full day in Maui.

Hawaii is a surfers’ paradise and I couldn’t help but smile while stumbling upon this vibrant surfboard fence on the North Shore of Maui.

We discovered lots of long and wide white sand beaches…

… and vast fields of lava rock on the South Shore. It looked a little bit like tilled field ready to be planted.

The kids were always ready to climb and explore among the rocks.

One of the most memorable encounters happened on one of the North Shore beaches where one evening we stumbled upon about 50 giant sea turtles resting on the sand. Apparently they come here every night to sleep and return to the sea in the morning.

It rained quite a lot in Maui, but the rain often meant that the beautiful rainbow would show up afterwards.

Nakalele Blowhole almost looks like a geyser but it’s ocean water spiting through a hole in the lava.

We scheduled two days to explore the famous Road to Hana that runs along Maui’s northeastern shore. This was definitely one of the most breathtaking drives I’ve ever done. The route itself takes about two hours but there are so many amazing things to admire along this winding road that it took us a whole day to drive it one way. Full of twists, turns, switchbacks, one-lane bridges, lots of tourists and very few places to park along the road, it was quite challenging to take photos of the wonderland we were seeing but I did manage some 🙂

The main attraction for most are waterfalls and swimming holes along the way. There were actually so many falls that by the end of our drive we were almost over-saturated with all the beauty. Here is the first swimming hole that we discovered on Hana Highway.

And here are some other beautiful falls and picturesque views that followed…

We spent a night in Hana and the following morning ventured to explore the area beyond the town on the Southeast side of the island. The day started with a morning dip in Venus Pool. It looked so perfect, almost surreal…

After reaching the south entrance to Haleakala National Park, we decided to hike Pipiwai Trail, which is supposed to be one of the best hikes on the island. Indeed it didn’t disappoint: more waterfalls, an old banyan tree, thick bamboo forest and at the end, the impressive 400-foot tall Waimoku Falls!

Here are some photos of Maui and Molokai from our helicopter tour with Air Maui. It was my first time in a helicopter and it turned out that taking photos during flight is as difficult as taking them underwater: constant movement, reflections in the windows and a mild case of motion sickness didn’t help but here are some that did turn out OK…

Sunrises from atop Haleakala are said to be the best in the world, however they are also so popular that the park started to limit the visitors by selling a specific amount of passes for each morning. Therefore, we decided to admire the sunset instead. Endless switchbacks eventually lead us to the summit of the volcano. The landscape was quite harsh and so much different than anywhere else on Maui. What I loved most were the clouds below us. It was such a majestic and exciting view. I’m glad we took all the warm(ish) clothes we had with us because we needed them all at the top while waiting for the sunset. It was quite cold at 10,000 feet but definitely worth it!