When I visited Maui during the summer of 2015 with my mom, we loved these Olivine Pools so much that we visited the area twice. It’s a beautiful natural lava pool protected from the raging ocean waves just outside. It’s gorgeous.
The first time we came we followed the directions in the Maui Revealed guide book. This book will tell you to go to just past the bell rock and park in the dirt lot off the side of the road. The directions confused us a bit and we wound up going too far right, when we should have gone left. So go left and down!
The water here is colder than the ocean, and some areas contain a lot of crabs or small fish. But the environment is worth the chill, because the outside is gorgeous and you can hear the crashing of the ocean waves just outside. Also be careful of the small blowhole near the outer edge here, which can become dangerous if the waves are really rough.
If you are looking for a thrill here: there are spots to cliff jump! Though a lot of the pools here are shallow, you can see that there are some very deep pools here too. I found a little pool that went so deep I couldn’t see the bottom. I could see some bigger fish swimming around in there though. I almost didn’t jump, worrying that some shark would be hiding inside, but I was in Maui, at a natural swimming pool, so I had to. And I did.
I jumped in screaming and scrambled out screaming too. Here’s a picture above of me frantically swimming for the edge to get out of the pool. I was so freaked out that I had awoken some dark sea creature in the cave below. And sure enough a minute or two later, while I was drying off, my mom saw a huge fishtail come splashing out of the surface. Now, I didn’t see this, and honestly didn’t want to believe her. But she claims she’s telling the truth, so do with that what you will. I still think jumping in was totally worth it.
This area is beautiful to explore. It’s covered in giant pieces of lava rock that make traversing hard to do. I actually got so used to walking through the battleground of lava that when I came to a clear field of grass, I took my eyes off the ground for one minute, and tripped. It was one of those moments when it seems like the ground is rushing up to meet you, rather than you falling to the ground. My mom got a great laugh out of this. Here are some pictures of the beautiful surrounding area!
It’s a beautiful, and usually less traveled part of Maui.
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