Things to do nearMakena Landing Park

Makena Landing has served as a working boat launch and community gathering point for generations on Maui's southern coast. In the nineteenth century, the landing functioned as a small commercial port, receiving supplies and cattle from the surrounding ranchlands of Upcountry Maui. That working history has largely receded, leaving behind a compact coastal park where the lava shelf meets some of the clearest inshore water in the region.

Snorkelers enter directly from the rocky shoreline and find themselves above coral formations populated by colorful reef fish, octopus, and the Hawaiian green sea turtle, known locally as honu, which are protected under federal law and often rest on the bottom or graze on algae nearby. The park itself is modest in its facilities, with a small parking area, a boat ramp, and open grassy space, but its simplicity is part of its appeal. Kayakers and outrigger paddlers use the ramp regularly, and on calm mornings the water surface has a glassy quality that makes the underwater terrain visible from above.

The surrounding landscape reflects the drier, more exposed character of South Maui, with kiawe trees providing scattered shade and views stretching toward the offshore islands of Molokini and Kahoolawe. Makena Landing Park rewards visitors who come without elaborate expectations, offering direct, unmediated contact with one of the most ecologically rich stretches of Maui's coastline.