Campground · West Maui Scenic Drive
Sleep beside the coast, from a tent to an A-frame cabin.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
West Maui Scenic Drive Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for West Maui Scenic Drive. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the West Maui Scenic Drive audio tourRecorded for this area
Olowalu Beach: A Reef That Reaches Beyond Maui“Olowalu Beach is coming up, a narrow strip of sand beside the highway with a large coral reef offshore. Choose it for snorkeling rather than a wide beach day.”
Plays near Camp Olowalu in the Parkwolf West Maui Scenic Drive Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Camp Olowalu is a beachfront campground just south of Lahaina. It has 35 tent sites, car camping, 21 canvas tentalows and six original A-frame cabins. Think of it as an overnight base by the coast, not a roadside beach stop. Reservations include use of the campground's shared areas; the shoreline in front remains public. Keep tents on the permitted sites, not on the sand beyond the conservation posts.
Campers share bathrooms with hot-water showers, an outdoor dishwashing station, picnic benches and BBQ grills. Car-camping spaces have no water, power or sewer hookups. Tent sites can feel exposed: wind can push dust around, and roosters and occasional road noise may disturb sleep. Bring a sturdy tent and keep food covered.
The site began in 1955 as Camp PECUSA, a place for church retreats and community gatherings on beachfront land set aside during the sugar-plantation era. Olowalu Elua Associates bought the former sugar operations in 1998, and the site took the Camp Olowalu name in 2006. Its six original plantation-era A-frame cabins sit in a semicircle; tentalows and new fruit-tree and native-plant landscaping came later, beginning in 2015.
Wildlife
152 sightingsHumpback WhaleMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
71 sightingsHawaiian Monk SealMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
23 sightingsSpinner DolphinMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
401 sightingsGreen Sea TurtleMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
14 sightingsHawksbill Sea TurtleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
92 sightingsWedge-tailed ShearwaterMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across West Maui Scenic Drive. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateLauniupoko Valley Trail3.2 mi · 2 hr · 3.4 mi awayA reservoir and old stone walls lead into a steep valley.
ChallengingWest Lāhainā Pali Trail4.6 mi · 3.5 hr · 3.6 mi awayOcean views reward the steep climb to turbine-lined Kealaloloa Ridge.
Beach · 0.1 mi awayOlowalu BeachA narrow roadside beach with a reef worth timing for high tide.
Restaurant · 0.4 mi awayLeoda’s Kitchen and Pie ShopA pie stop with a citrus story rooted in Olowalu.
Store · 0.4 mi awayOlowalu General StoreA roadside stop for Spam musubi, shave ice, and Maui-made goods.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayThe Maui Butterfly FarmA hands-on 45-minute tour through a walk-in butterfly house.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayOlowalu PetroglyphsAncient rock art rewards a slow scan from below.
Beach · 2.4 mi awayUkumehame Beach ParkA roadside beach stop for surfing, sunsets, and a picnic.
Picnic area · 3 mi awayPāpalaua Wayside ParkA shady beach picnic, with the highway just behind your towel.
Beach · 3.3 mi awayLauniupoko Beach ParkShaded lawns, an ocean pool, and a livelier reef break.Parkwolf’s West Maui Scenic Drive ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
