After a long day, Sunday, of trying to catch the sunrise at the top of Mt. Haleakala, having breakfast at Kona Lodge, taking the death-defying backside of Maui to go see the seven sacred pools, journeying all the way around Maui, we finally arrived at Makena State Park. We were surprised to find the parking lot to be extremely full with cars parked in marked and unmarked spots. 90% of the time when you arrive at any beach around 6 PM you have to maneuver around the masses that are leaving. Not here!
Finding a spot to park our car took a little while, but once we parked, we headed toward the beach just following everyone else as we were unsure of where we were going. As we entered Big Beach, we were surprised at how big and vast it was. We thought we would settle down here to enjoy what was left of the day and to take in the sunset. However, we noticed droves of people heading all the way to the north end of Big Beach and hiking up a small trail and disappearing into the distance.
Striking our curiosity, we moved closer to investigate where this little rocky trail leads to. As we got closer, we could hear the wonderful sounds of drums and other instruments permeating the air. We soon found out from the locals that there is a drum circle party every Sunday and they invited us over to partake in the festivities. We said why not and headed over to Big Beach’s smaller counterpart, known as Little Beach.
We embarked on the 5 minute hike over the lava rock outcropping and stopped halfway through the hike in order to take in the surroundings. The top of the cliff definitely offered a beautiful vantage point to take pictures and to take in the sights of this side of Maui. After being satisfied with the number of pictures we took, we continued down the path onto Little Beach.
Upon stepping foot on Little Beach, we were instantly whisked away into another world. This world appeared to be a Hippie paradise. Half the people were sans bathing suits and the other half were enjoying medicinal herbs. Being from the East Coast this sight was definitely a culture shock for us. Never before have we seen surfers surfing with their natural body suit or people frolicking hedonistically as they were. We reached a moment where we asked ourselves, do we continue or do we turn around and head back to Big Beach?
Here’s the thing, we do not travel to stick with the status quo or to remain within our comfort zone, so being the explorers that we are, we decided to stay. We settled down, went into the water, and returned to our spot in the sand just in time to take in the sunset. This was one of the coolest experiences because as day was turning into night, everyone froze in what they were doing in order to take in this magical moment.
And just like that, the sun had disappeared behind a mountain off in the horizon and after a loud cheer from the crowd,
the beats of the drums started to pick up with many people choosing one of two fates. One was to leave and the other was to partake in the drum circle party. We chose the latter.
As we approached the group of people gathered around the drummers, we saw many dancing in a trance like manner, others fire twirling, and the remaining just taking in the experience. From our periphery, we saw someone who looked awfully familiar and upon a closer inspection, we realized that it was Steven Tyler. Apparently, he is known to frequent this gathering often.
All in all, we enjoyed this experience. It was definitely very different from what we are used to or from what we have ever done. We will never forget the friendly people that we met, all the hippies running around, the beautiful sunset, and the eclectic beats of this one Sunday in Maui.
Our only advice for anyone venturing to Little Beach is to be open-minded and to enjoy the experience. Also, bring a flashlight to see where you are going on your hike back to Big Beach after the sun has set.
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