ALOHA!
Huialoha Church is a small Hawaiian church located in the Kaupo area in East Maui.
And to get to Huialoha Church, you’ll need to take the back road to Hana aka the backside of Haleakala.
The road to the church is located off of Piilani Highway.
👆👆 Part of the Piilani Highway runs directly along the coast (and cliff!). This spot is 5-10 minutes from the turn-off onto the road to the church.
Piilani Highway connects connects to the Hana Highway.
Personally, I was not interested in driving the back road to Hana, with one of my main concerns being alone and driving or falling off a cliff. 😜
I also didn’t want to be driving straight on and encounter cars coming straight at me. (I didn’t want to drive in reverse right off a cliff. 😜)
Walking the back road to Hana
And so, I walked the back road to Hana! Part of it anyway.
I was staying at the Kipahulu Campground in Haleakala National Park.
I made a day of it and walked the back road to Hana from the Kipahulu Campground with the Kaupo General Store as my “destination.” I think I walked more than 15 miles that day.
I’m sure for most people that is too much to walk.
When going in the direction of Kipahulu to Kaupo, the Huialoha Church comes before the Kaupo General Store. Even so, walking from Kipahulu to the Huialoha Church will also be close to 15 miles round trip, since you’ll walk a bit extra down the road off the highway to get to the church grounds.
And the “hike” (walk) won’t be just for the Hawaiian church. If a Maui hike with amazing views sounds like your kind of hike, then it will be worth it! Still, if 15 miles seems like too much, you can also make it shorter walk by walking to Alelele Falls and back along the Hana Highway.
So although you are not on a typical “hiking trail” when you walk to the Huialoha Church, you can think of this as a solid day hike on Maui with amazing views! The Hana Highway and Piilani Highway will be the “trail”! There will be grand coastal views as you are walking.
Coming from the direction of Hana and Kipahulu, the ocean will be on your left side!
Since you’ll be walking on a mostly paved or gravel road on the Hana Highway and Piilani Highway, it’s really not all that strenuous in terms of terrain.
And since it is a rather remote area (with the occasional car passing by), you’ll also want to be prepared with your Hawaii hiking essentials!
Driving to Huialoha Church
If you have read about the back road to Hana and you feel reasonably comfortable driving this portion of the Hana Highway, then you can also drive to the Huialoha Church when you are doing a loop of the Road to Hana.
Explore the map.
Or another option if you don’t want to take up a whole day of the Road to Hana and have the experience of driving the back side of Haleakala: You can drive from the Kula side and you can make the Huialoha Church as your “destination” and then turn around and drive back that way. It will also be a stunning drive.
Explore the map.
And then once you have arrived at the spot to turn down the road to the church…
If you want to drive directly to the church, you’ll need a 4 wheel drive. There is a sign.
If you won’t have a 4wd, then there is room to park your car just before that “4wd only” road, and then you can walk the rest of the way.
The road to the church is a private road, but it seems that you are welcome to explore the grounds of this cute Hawaiian church as long as everyone is respectful! And if you’re driving, don’t forget to return the chain.
More below on a bit of what it’s like to take a trip to Huialoha Church!
🌴
Getting to Huialoha Church
It’s marked on google maps, so you can use Huialoha Church as your destination for google maps.
It can be a good idea to download free offline google maps before you go. There’s a good chance you won’t have data in this remote part of East Maui.
If you are coming from the Hana Highway side (Hana and Kipahulu), then you will also be able to see the small church sitting on the small peninsula as you get near!
Walking down to Huialoha Church
And you will be walking DOWN! (Or driving down if you have a 4wd.)
Remember if you came from Hana, you just saw the church from up above on top of the cliff you’re driving on!
You can then head further towards the coast. It seems like this is generally a rough area of the ocean so it’s probably best if you stayed out of the water here and instead just admire the views. The ocean is powerful!
It even looked like there might be some black sand hiding beneath the rocky shoreline! (aka another black sand beach on Maui?!)
From land you can also see what have been called the Mokulau islets, the lava rocks popping up from the ocean.
There was one other person on the church grounds when I went. It was truly a peaceful experience! (The whole back road to Hana experience was, really!)
And that’s a bit about walking around the church grounds in the Kaupo area!
See about walking to Alelele Falls, also on the back road to Hana.
See more about driving the back road to Hana.
Plus see the big list of stops to make on the Road to Hana!
And also about walking the West Maui back road.
HAPPY SEEING THE HUIALOHA HAWAIIAN CHURCH OFF THE PIILANI HIGHWAY ON THE BACK ROAD TO HANA!
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