Maui Magic

Iao Valley State Park

When Mark Twain saw this park, he dubbed it the Yosemite of the Pacific.  Here you'll find the erosion-formed gray and moss-green rock called Iao Needle, a spire that rises 1,200 feet from the valley floor.  This jungle-like park offers a beautiful set of walks, where you can stop and contemplate by the edge of a stream or look at some of the native plants and flowers.   Mist occasionally rises if there's been a rain, making the spot even more magical.

Radiating from the summit, remote, untamed, and inaccessible gorges rip open the mountainside.  Iao Valley is the most well known-and the only one where visitors may drive up to its mouth.  These hills are the remains of a volcano, the spewed up the head of Maui and once towered some 7,000 feet above the sea. Cloud streams waft through Iao, alternately obscuring and revealing misted, steep canyon walls.