Off-Piste

Today, we decided to hike the Kapalua Coastal Trail near the Ritz-Carlton hotel, fifteen minutes from Nanea. It’s 3.5 miles round trip and is rated easy…right up our alley!

We found parking fairly easily, but we got distracted even before we saw the trail itself. Maui Revealed mentioned the Dragon’s Teeth Trail as a nice short addition to the hike, and we were parked mere meters from the trailhead…how could we resist?

It didn’t take very long to reach Dragon’s Teeth, and it was gorgeous.

Dragon’s Teeth
Splish Splash

The book didn’t mention the Kapalua Labyrinth, but one of the other visitors at Dragon’s Teeth mentioned it. We walked to the center on the path, then we took a shortcut out.

Kapalua Labyrinth

In the center

We had lunch at the Ritz-Carlton’s Burger Shack on the beach. The food was good, and the Kona Royal milkshake was killer. It wasn’t a good day for being in the water, though.

You can make these at home, but the scenery will be missing
Red Flag Day

We finally started hiking the Coastal Trail a mere three hours after parking our car. It was great…but somewhere along the way, we accidentally veered off the trail, which gave us a better view of the ocean and of the point at Namalu Bay.

More rough surf
The rocks are staring
Yet more rough surf
Shearwater

We found our way back to the trail eventually and hiked it to the Montage at Kapalua Bay, where we saw sea turtles for the first time on this trip.

Sea Turtles at last!

This evening, we walked down the Beachwalk for the last time and had dinner at Monkeypod Kitchen at Whalers Village before walking back to our room and packing our suitcases.