Nakalele Blowhole

The northeastern side of Maui doesn’t get a lot of attention, but if you are looking for the heart carved out of a volcanic cliffside, this is where you need to head. Both the heart and the Nakalele Blowhole can be found at Poelua Bay.

The drive is beautiful, but will remind you of the twists and turns of the Road to Hana. The drive is very scenic and the scenery is gorgeous. Poelua Bay is easy to find, you just follow Highway 30, it is 1/2 mile past mile marker 38. There is a wide turn out for parking. It will be on your left, if you are traveling from the north.

Here is a taste of the drive.

You will be parking at the top of the cliffs. You can either view the blowhole from this vantage point, or climb down the rocky cliffside for a closer look. If you want to view the heart, you have to go down.

The trail is filled with rocks, boulders and loose gravel. The loose gravel is always what gets me. For some reason, I left my walking sticks in the car. Bad choice. We still made it down fine, but we were much slower than we would have been if I had my sticks with me. We also underestimated how long it would take us to climb down and back up again.

You will see a warning sign half way down informing you of the deaths that have occurred here because people get too close to the blowhole or the edge of the cliff. To be safe you should stay on the rock that is dry, especially if you are here at high tide. Not to be a downer, but nobody who has fallen through or gotten pulled into the hole has been recovered, so stay on dry land.

To get to the Maui heart, you will have to continue on the trail past the warning sign. When you get to the place where the ground starts to level out, the heart will be to your right. If you miss it on your way down, you should see it on your way up. The first time I saw this heart was on Pinterest. I was absolutely determined to see it for myself, but I didn’t know exactly where it was. When we got near the bottom of the trail I asked someone coming up if they knew where the heart was. He told me how to find it, it’s around a cliff wall, so you won’t actually see it on your way down unless you look to the right. Most people are looking to the left, which is where the blowhole is.

My husband knew how much I wanted to find this heart, so he couldn’t understand why I burst out laughing when I saw it. I was laughing so hard, I was crying and couldn’t stand up straight. The pictures I had seen made the heart appear to be very, very large. It was not large, AT ALL. I was envisioning a fifteen foot carved heart, high on a cliffside. It was neither, still cool, but it was neither.

I include this less than stellar photo of my husband and myself for two reasons. First, so you have a real perspective on the size of the heart. It’s about a foot tall and you can walk right up to it, it is not perched high on some cliffside. Second, it is crazy windy here, as shown by my sideways blowing hair. Make sure to wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the blowing dirt. My husband was regretting forgetting his sunglasses the entire time we were here. It was so windy that I asked if he wanted to drive all the way back to the condo or to the nearest town to buy another pair. He soldiered on, so I tried not to complain that the wind was bothering my eyes, even with the sunglasses on.

The colors of the ocean and the waves pounding against the cliffs caught my attention and we went and sat at a spot where we could watch the waves for awhile. Honestly, I could sit and watch waves all day, I find it to be extremely relaxing. My husband enjoys it as well, but would never outlast me in a how long can I sit and watch waves without getting bored competition. So, after fifteen minutes or so, we moved on to our final destination, the blowhole.

Quite frankly, I didn’t think it was that impressive. The blowhole at Wai’anapanapa State Park was much more awe-inspiring, in my opinion. However, the best time to view any blowhole is at high tide and we visited Nakalele at almost low tide (because we were also visiting the Olivene Tide Pools and you have to be there at low tide in order to be safe) and Wai’anapanapa at high tide. The Olivene tide pools were extremely disappointing and I wish we had visited the blowhole at high tide and skipped the tide pools altogether.

What was most striking at Poelua Bay was the stark and desolate landscape, especially as it contrasted with the lush vegetation at the top of the cliffs.

A lot of the rock is very sharp, so be mindful of where you step, sit or put your hands. This is the only place where we did not see plant life making a comeback, you have to climb about half way up the cliff before you will see plants growing in places where you can’t believe they could grow. That was one of the things that amazed me the most at Kilauea, seeing Ohi’a trees growing right through the hardened lava of the dormant caldera.

If you look closely, you can see people at the top of the cliff. That gives you a fair idea of how high and steep the climb is. You can see the blowhole from atop the cliff. If you are not interested in climbing down, I’d visit at high tide, so you will have more to see from the top of the cliff. There were many people making the climb down. People stopped at different levels depending on how comfortable they were with the climb and if they were in hiking shoes versus flip flops. Our strategy was to watch the people in front of us, if they slipped, we took a different route. You should also watch the people coming up, as they will avoid the areas coming down that gave them trouble.

After we climbed up the path, we went to the top of the highest hill to look down the coastline. Unfortunately, even with sunglasses on, sand or dirt blew in my eye. As I was trying to blink like crazy to get it out, more blew in my other eye. It hurt like crazy and the only reason I was able to restrain myself from rubbing my eye is I knew from my best friend’s experience, how horrifically painful a scratched eye can be. At this point, I couldn’t even see, opening my eyes hurt so bad. My husband had to guide me down the hill and to the car, which had a case of bottled water. After a ridiculously slow walk down the hill and back to the car, with me crying (I’m sure people were staring, but I couldn’t see them), I was able to flush my eyes out with the water.

There are a few things I would have done differently on this day. First, I’d visit at high tide. Second, I’d wear goggles (only partially kidding). Third, I would not have left the water in the car. The hike was longer and more strenuous than we thought it would be. Also, it would have been great had I been able to flush my eye immediately instead of stumbling around, in pain, not being able to keep my eyes open. Fourth, I would have used the walking stick that we left in the car.

Things to keep in mind if you go, wear sunscreen. There is no shade. Wear hiking shoes/sandals, the terrain is uneven the entire trail and filled with loose gravel. Also, some of the lava rock is very sharp and you want your feet protected. We spent an hour and a half here, including the hike down and back up.

Our next adventure for the day included an accidental walk on the Ohai Trail and a visit to the Olivene Tide Pools. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

(All pictures are available for purchase as Fine Art Prints or Digital Downloads at full resolution through Alamy. If you see something you like, click on the link. If you are unable to find it, use the Contact Me page and I will make sure the image is available.

                                                              Pin for later!