Dragon’s Teeth

Dragon’s Teeth is a jagged lava point on Kapalua’s coast, at Makāluapuna Point. A short, rough walk leads to a shoreline of upright rock fins, with the ocean on one side and the West Maui coast opening around the point. Go for the strange rock shapes and close-up views; this is an uneven shore walk, not a paved overlook or swimming beach.

The surface turns to broken, uneven lava rather than a smooth viewing platform. Wet or algae-covered rock can be slick, so grippy shoes make this a better stop. For a photo, frame the tall fins against the ocean and leave fractured rock in the foreground; the point itself is reached on foot, not from a roadside pullout.

A common explanation is that lava reached the sea and was pushed and split into upright fins by wind and waves as it cooled. The jagged point is a scatter of fractured slabs as much as a row of spires, so it’s worth looking across the rock rather than only at the tallest tips.

Honokahua, an ancestral Hawaiian burial area, borders this coast. During resort development at Kapalua, about 1,100 ancestral Hawaiians were exhumed from the surrounding dunes. The controversy helped lead to Hawaiʻi’s 1990 Act 306, which established island burial councils. Keep to the marked route: the burial area is culturally important and is not part of the visit.