Na'ili'ili-Haele Stream & Waterfalls |
Posted on 27. May, 2009 by Walker in Adventures, Hikes, Pools (natural), Road to Hana, Road to Hana Sites, Sites | Hana Hwy, Waterfalls
Na'ili'ili haele waterfall #3 (or #2, depending how wet it has been.)
Rating: 
In a nutshell: Na’ili’ili-Haele, for most, will be a nice short hike to two or three waterfalls and pools. The more able hikers will be rewarded with more significant sights.
Minuses: Access may be restricted by EMI. Longer hikes become increasingly difficult to nearly impossible for mere mortals.
Sound-bite: “Yeah, I think that looks sturdy…”
DETAILS:
This is a great place for everyone from the novice to the extreme hiker, and everyone in between – you really can make this as much adventure as you wish. There is a bamboo forest to walk through on your way to the stream bed (and beyond if you wish), and a string of waterfalls and pools to access (the quantity you will see depends on how extreme a hiker you are!) The first few waterfalls are typically within easy reach of most folks.
When you first get here it can be tricky to find the waterfalls. The number one key to remember, so that you don’t wind up wandering aimlessly though bamboo forest trails that lead to nowhere, is that the waterfalls are all found along the main stream flow.
Start at the road, and look for openings into the bamboo. You can pick any opening and head downhill – they all lead to the main trail. The main trail soon heads down a sometimes slippery incline (good news is it is short) – hint: bamboo is extremely strong, and most is exceptionally rooted into the soil, you can hold on to it to anchor yourself on slippery sections.
Note: This hike is on private EMI property. Please see the EMI page for more information.
Next you will come to an EMI Ditch, which you will have to step across. It looks worse than it is because you’ll likely be focused on how deep it is. But the step across is actually about the length of a person’s stride, so you’d have to be careless and/or unlucky to actually end up in the ditch. Note: Sometimes someone has left a scrap plank, branch, bamboo pole, or something else straddling the ditch – I suggest NOT walking on whatever may happen to have been laid there (for obvious reasons!)
After you have crossed the ditch, you will be presented with a decision: take the high-road, or the low-road. (Those not bound by metaphor can feel free to take either as they both go to the same place.) You’ll soon be at the main stream bed. Depending on how much rain there has been, this may be a trivial crossing of hopping across large boulders, or you may want a length of bamboo to help you keep your balance and/or survey the depth as you walk across.
Note: Please be aware of unsafe high water or flash-flooding that can occur in North and East Maui streams.
Once across is when the previous tip of “follow the stream bed” comes into play. If you follow what appear to be prominent trails (away from the stream), you’ll become one of the reasons these false trails remain so clearly prominent and frequently traveled (because people just follow them, till they realize they suddenly end nowhere in particular.)
As you follow a trail that parallels the stream (headed upstream) you will either discover a giant raging waterfall, on the opposite bank feeding into the Na’ili’ili hale stream, or perhaps you’ll pass it, dry and unnoticed. This huge disparity in description (and why it has been left out of most other guidebooks completely) is because it lies directly on the other end of a reservoir that feeds the main EMI diversion ditch, and except during the wettest times, most (or all) of the water that feeds it has been diverted.
Continue upstream for a bit and you will come upon another waterfall, with a pleasant swimming hole. If you are moderately sure-footed, you can continue across the stream, and up a steep, and somewhat slippery hill. There are some protruding rocks for footing, and bamboo-backup for anchoring yourself should the footing fail. I’ve seen all types of folks get past this one, but it is a place you could take a fairly painful fall if you happened to slip.
As you follow the trail you will quickly come to another set of falls with a large, deep pool, and many rock-jumping, and waterfall climbing/sitting options. To get to the next and subsequent pool, the hiking gets a bit more extreme, requiring climbing a oragami-ish wooden ladder/rope contraption. To get to the fifth waterfall, which is about 35′ and in a particularly dramatic setting, you;re gonna swim (which shouldn’t be a biggie, since you’ve probably taken a swim by now, anyway!)
After number five, the hiking gets extreme – however, if you take a look around the Google satellite shots (link below) you’ll observe an outstanding opportunity for the more experienced jungle hiker, with what appear to be truly dramatic waterfalls and gigantic pools further upstream (I have marked the “big” pool described above for scale). I have not yet hiked that far as I’ve got to take out more life insurance before tackling the rockface on #5. Seriously, though – once I figure out the best way around #5, I promise to attempt a first-hand account of the treasure that lies beyond for the most physically able (or in my case, nuts!)
Key Info:
Mile Marker: #6.6 (Hana Hwy aka Hwy 360)
GPS Coordinates: 20.885207,-156.208211
Facilities: No facilities
Get directions
View Na’ili’ili-Haele Stream & Waterfalls in a larger map
You may also be interested in:
2 Responses to “Na'ili'ili-Haele Stream & Waterfalls”
Leave a Reply
Open Map Picker
Open the sites & adventures map
Tim Potter
07. Mar, 2010
Take the warning about flash-flooding in this area very seriously. My girlfriend and I, along with another hiker, were trapped at the base of the fifth waterfall (the one you swim to) when the lazy creek turned into a raging river within a few minutes. The area is like a bowl with steep sides all around and it can get chilly in this area from the mist off of the 35′ falls. I suspect EMI opened a flood gate because the water level changed so rapidly that it could not be due to natural causes like rain.
The problem is that a good portion of the hike back relies on using the boulders in the creek as a trail, which is not possible once the water level rises. It took us 4 hours of strenuous crawling through the rain-forest & mangrove thicket to get out. Not to mention we had to jump off the 4th waterfall (about 8-10′ drop) into the pool without knowing the depth or being able to see into the muddy water. Luckily it was deep enough, but was very hard to fight the current once in the pool.
Our biggest fear was if we had to cross the creek once we made our way through the thicket because you end up on the opposite side of the creek from where your car is when you swim to the fifth falls. Fortunately, you do not have cross the creek on the way out if the water level is too high. About a 1/2 mile below where you initially crossed the creek on the way up to the falls is a bridge. There is a path through the bamboo to the bridge. Put simply, if the water level is too high to easily wade across the creek, don’t risk it and walk down to the bridge!
Mark
07. Mar, 2010
Wow Tim – thanks for sharing that. Jumping into the water at that level was dangerous – I’m glad it turned out OK for you. I’d suggest that no one reading this ever try and enter the streams when they flood. .
Believe it or not, flash floods most frequently do come from rain upstream. The mountain is 10,000′ high and these falls are at the bottom of a huge watershed encompassing countless square miles .
The effect is so dramatic, however, because the damming diverts up to a certain capacity above normal flow levels and then the rest spills over the top – in other words, the only reason this is a “lazy river” most of the time is that at typical stream flows the streams are usually sucked dry at the lowest diversion point, and then the only water you usually see is coming up from springs beneath the subsequent pools between you and the diversions.
Once the diversion reaches capacity, an almost immediate addition of water is restored to the upstream flow, and it is a significant change almost immediately downstream.
While not a daily occurrence, flash floods can happen at any time, and I always pay close attention to the water level during any stream hike – glad you’re here to tell us your story!
PS – For folks that are not confident in their ability to be safe, there is an awesome guide named Alicia (search for Awapuhi Adventures here) – Alicia is very knowledgeable and experienced and can take folks to enjoy places like these safely.