Hiking on Maui is very rewarding but it is important to be well-informed. We recommend all hikers educate themselves on local dangers and how to be respectful of Native Hawaiian culture and cultural sites.

Be aware of FLASH FLOODING. 

In certain areas, it rains many inches a day. If you are in or near a stream, one minute it can be calm and the next it can change into a roaring river. Even if it’s sunny where you are, it might have been raining higher up in the mountains and all this rain will come down eventually. Below is a video, captured by drone,* of a flash flood in East Maui, which gives a harrowing example of how a stream can go from moderate to overflowing in seconds. (Luckily, all of the people in this video were safely rescued, but unfortunately that’s often not the case.)

These 10 tips apply for hiking all over Hawai’i:

Mahalo to Sierra Club O’ahu Group for this great graphic!

 *Please also be mindful when using drones – not everyone wants to be on video, and they are very noisy – many people hike to get away from this type of noise.