Capturing the Moment

Early morning look at Haleakala volcano's South side  Road 'round the West Maui Mtns, NW Maui Plumeria  One of the big adventures not often attempted here on Maui is the drive around the West Maui mountains. The road here can be driven by any type of car, however you need to be a confident driver as some of the turns are little more than one lane and on the precipice of a huge cliff. But like the more popular 'road to Hana' the sights along this drive are incredible. Huge canyons, distant waterfalls, tropical flowers, and ocean vistas try and pull your eyes off the road. One of my favorite scenes, Big Beach  My mom and I tackled this windy road after starting off the morning at the very end of the road, La Perouse Bay . Tucked back in the newest lava flows on Maui the road dead ends into a very beautiful but rugged bay where Admiral La Perouse landed his ship. Beautiful sandy beaches like Big Beach await travelers down in the Makena area with a few se...

La Perouse Bay, Maui   I had always heard that spinner dolphins would cruise over the sandy bottom at a protected bay on the south shore of Maui called La Perouse Bay. On one of my snorkel trips that I drive called the Molokini Wildside we can sometimes make it through the windy and wavy conditions on the way to La Perouse to check out Maui's youngest lava flows and check for dolphins. Last week we saw the dolphins several days in a row so I planned on my first day off to grab my big underwater camera, wake up early, and head down to see if I could get some good dolphins pictures.   After a beautiful sunrise I saw a glint of silver from the middle of the bay. The dolphins were here! I grabbed my snorkel gear and and jumped in, carefully avoiding all the sharp a'a lava rocks. The spinners were way out in the middle of the bay in about 35ft of water. They are nocturnal hunters that spend their mornings in a resting state, zigzagging back and forth in bays such as this....

 The summer swells are finally here. The same swell that lit up Cloudbreak thousands of miles away reached our shores here in Maui last week. The west side lit up with overhead glassy surf while the south side remained a bit shadowed. Occaisionally a big set would slip through the shadow zone and rumble into a few select south shore breaks so this is where Ben, Heidi, and I headed to avoid the masses. Ben and I had surf boards all waxed up and ready to ride, while Heidi had her favorite long zoom lens outfitted on her DSLR camera ready to catch the action. Sometimes being a surf photographer can be a lot of waiting but luckily Ben and I kept the action coming for her by catching lots of waves.   It was a fun day with lots of head high sets coming in. Not too many people were out. Ben definitely got the wipeout of the day with his casting the board aside nose first entry down the face of a set wave.

At the end of the road past Kihei, Wailea, and even Makena you get to an impassable lava field. This lava flow is less than 1000 years old and it still very barren. While the rugged, uneven terrain stops all vehicles and most travelers, some people persist and step foot onto the ancient 'King's Highway.' This is an old coastal path that led completely around the island. Legend has it that warriors would patrol the coastline day and night to make sure they were never surprised by a war party from a neighboring island. Some people claim to see the spirits of these warriors still this day. These ghost-warriors are commonly called 'the Night Marchers.' It wasn't the night marchers that made me caution my spur of the moment decision to take this adventurous hike...it was the fact that I was wearing little rubber sandals! If you take a close look at the picture of the actual trail you can see how uneven the loose lava rock is that you tread upon, not to menti...