This is another post about my visit to Maui in May/June of 2021. I have no idea when I actually wrote the words below, but I only just got around to pairing them with the images…

I have trouble understanding why the Coronavirus restrictions for Haleakala National Park should ever have included shorter hours of operation. If all park visitors can only come between 9-5, as opposed to any earlier, that means that there will be many more visitors all there at the same time.

This means that at one point on the ascent to Waimoku falls, your intrepid scribe, (a.k.a. someone who is well honed in the art of darting around slow people like an asshole) darted past family groups with children and couples filming themselves alike, and was astonished thereafter to find an actual, solid gap of solitude.

This also means that when our bull-headed hero with a wide-angle lens got to the end of the trail, he was effectively pinned between folks slowly lumbering over the downed trees, and folks frittering to and fro past the sign warning of life-threatening danger and a $100 fine that marks the end of the trail.

There are worse views to be stuck with.

In all seriousness, I can’t complain about the crowds, because I really can’t blame them. This hike was awesome, and it is definitely a must-do.

Trail Information
Name	The Pipiwai Trail
Type	point-to-point
Location	Haleakala National Park
State	HI
Country	USA
Miles	2
Check out the trails index for information on more trails!

One of its advantages is that it is photogenic, but not consistently, eminently so. There are some obvious photo opportunities, and there is a lot of gorgeous scenery, but it is not like a national park hike where you feel like you are constantly dodging cameras. (Except, perhaps, at the end of the trail.) So what are the highlights?

I was moved by the sound of wind in the bamboo forest. I usually think of bamboo as a tacky weed, but there’s something really majestic about being surrounded by tall stalks, the resonance of the hollow bumps, the songs of birds hidden somewhere else in the thick forest.

I was impressed enough to pull out my tape recorder app in the vain hope I could use it on my album. (Track 11, “Wind in a Bamboo Forest” – Track 12, “Angsy, Anti-Capitalist Kazoo Solo”)

So yes, the highlights are the trees and the waterfalls.