Day 14 of Our Tour of Maui, Hawaii - Camping on Sunset Beach, Veterans Park, Waipuilani Park - Maui Hawaii Landscape Photography, Maui Hawaii Portrait Photography

Our family loves to go camping and we spent some time camping this summer at a place known as Veterans Park.  So now we are going to leave Makena, at this point in our tour, and travel all the way back up to North Kihei.  Veterans Park is a part of a long stretch of beach known to the locals as Sunset Beach.  Waipuilani Park sits at the top of Sunset Beach on the North End.  Veterans Park is closed to the public and sits on the south side of Sunset Beach.  Special permits from the state and permission from the Veterans who manage the park are required to camp in this park.  There are many camping opportunities on Maui, however, and they can be located by going to the website managed by the state Parks Department.


The website is located here:


http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/camping/fees.cfm


Simply go to this website and click the white icon/button for reservations.  A warning however, camping spots can fill up well in advance at peak times; so if you are planning to camp on Maui during your vacation, make sure to book a spot in the camping location you choose as soon as possible.


As I said earlier, our family enjoys camping, as well as do many of our friends and their families.  We plan to make a trip to Wainapanapa State Park in Hana later on this year, so keep an eye out for that blog post also.  In the meantime, come and enjoy Veterans Park and Sunset Beach with us.


Getting back to a description of this beach and its pros and cons, Sunset Beach, as the name would indicate, is one of the very best locations for watching the sunset.  Locals and others who live here gather just before dusk in Waipuilani Park to sit on the bluffs and watch the view.  There is a very small parking lot and places to pull off and stop for a short bit along the side of the road outside the park.  I think the view is beautiful from this park all day long, but it is not the best beach for swimming in because of all the rocks along the shoreline.  I do love this beach for family picture taking, and I've brought several families here at all times of the day for family photo sessions.


This is the shoreline and the view through the trees.

Ah, the swings!!!  I absolutely hate these swings with a passion, and my kids adore them.  There is a large patch of the finest powdered dirt underneath these swings, and I think it goes clear down to Lucifer in his litte home in Hell.  My younger kids can spend all day here on these things.  When they come back, they look like dirt balls - dirt balls like you've never seen in your life.  My oldest daugher, well we've all seen her fine shock of Polynesian hair.  Imagine if you used this dirt as hair gel.  She has before, believe me.  I will never forget the first camping trip we took to this park after she was old enough to walk and get around.  Every year this camping trip falls on the week that I need to do our school supply shopping.  If you don't do the school supply shopping here when the school supplies first come out, good look to you on finding everything you need.  So I left to go do the yearly school supply shopping and pick up a few necesseties.  I arrived back at camp just about four pm to find my oldest daughter covered completely in a fine powder of red dirt.  Only just her eyes were sticking out.  I was so shocked and horrified, I immediately flipped out.  I wish now that I'd stayed calm and gotten the picture of it for posterity.   You've seen my pictures lately, kids almost drowning, etc.  I'd have gotten the picture if it happened these days.  But this was way back in the day, and  I didn't photograph any of it.  I completely freaked out instead.  Any ideas yet which one of this family is the camping imposter.  Yes, I admit it.  That would be me.  My oldest son, who you've never met in this blog, took his beloved sister and hosed her down from head to toe until we could finally find her again and find mom's sanity.  I'll never forget what her hair looks like when it meets the swings.  And all I can say these days, is thank you Samsung Washer and Dryer.  You know you are one of the great loves of my life.

This was the view from our tent.  It was as breathtaking as you can believe, especially at night when the moon would rise up over this beach and disappear below the horizon.  Romantic you say?  Ummm!  Yes, my husband and I thought so also, and then we'd look to our left over a sea of beds and little children's heads.  You haven't met my husband too much in this blog.  I'll have to introduce you more.  He resembles The Rock, I've been told, and makes women swoon.  He makes me swoon too, when he's behaving, which is rarely.  He is the biggest instigator of trouble you will ever meet in your life, but he loves me.  I know that.  So will you know that, when you see the condo quarters he sets up for me when we go camping. 

I promised you a picture of my camping set up, and here it is.  Nice, yeah?

Here she is, the dirt magnet.  I love her dearly, but see that look in her eye?  Yes, handle her with caution, and never take your eye off her.

Everyone knows this guy is the love of my life.  I try to hide it, but I'm just not that good at it.

My mini-me!  Or my little sister's mini-me.  We haven't determined yet which of us she most resembles.

My future star!  I love him too, dearly.   He lives under a golden rainbow, this kid.  I've never seen anyone with so much luck.  I had to fight to get a picture of him for this blog post, because we rarely see him all week once we hit the beach and the tents go up.