We made the full circle, and it was great! We did it in 8 hours, and it worked for us! We read every word in the Revealed book, and still missed things! The mile markers the book refers to start after Paia, if I remember right, although there are MM's in Paia too! Read ahead, and keep your eyes open. It would say "at MM 15, look for this or that", and before you know it you were by it or there was no place to park! Most people on the road use the book, and these secret gems are empty when you drive by! That tells me I'm not the only one who missed something! I talked to many people who were having the same issue-they couldn't find it or no place to park because it had grown over since the book was written.
It was helpful, but not the end all. You'll miss a lot if you just use the book. We would stop when others in front of us did too. They would lead us to whatever it might have been that we would have missed or not stopped for. Have a great trip, and enjoy the drive, no matter how far you go or what you use as a guide!

Tommyd,

Did it occur to you that maybe the people in front of you stopped because one guy pulls over just to look at the map or stretch his legs, causing a second guy to pull over believing something good must be going on, prompting a third and a fourth rabid driver to pull over? This is the reason we always chuckle at the people in Hawaii and elsewhere who pull over and wonder what, just because other people have.

And if you say that most people on the road used the book, and most people agreed with you that they too missed stuff, then who are these people pulled over at the side of the highway clueing you in to all the good stuff?

In terms of missing stuff, I highlighted the places I really wanted to see ON THE MAP ITSELF and just stayed aware that they were coming up. If you have to turn around, you have to turn around. Then I kept my eye out for places in the book that had no cars nearby and we'd pop in to see an empty waterfall if we so desired. I didn't have my head in the book the whole time, I just followed along on the map and stayed aware of our general location.

And if something has overgrown since MR was written, it has probably overgrown since another book was written or since one of those CDs was recorded. This is the jungle, not a well-marked Disneyland. If you can't find something, maybe it just wasn't meant to be, and conversely, often you will stumble onto something that you never knew was there. Hawaii is wonderfully serendipitous in this way.

love
roxy

And to Kikahead...

I don't usually get bitten by mosquitoes on the mainland, but Hawaiian mosquitoes find something very tasty about me, chewing me up and spitting me out! But often it's probably just because I've pulled over behind them, wondering what.

love
roxy

2nd turn it on'sCD suggestion for emckeeve & tommyd, we did Road to Hana before having Maui Revealed and used a "Road to Hana" Audio cassette/CD tour that was widely available on Maui (e.g. Walmart and Kmart,&~o)shops) that tells you exactly where to stop as your driving, perhaps this will work for you if you decide to go again.

Since then we did a repeat Hana tour with Maui Revealed, and the description of the road/sights beyond 7 sacred pools was the most notable additional info. we made use of from the MR text and FYI, we're not 56 but we usually don't do too much in the way of hiking.

I just want to clarify that I didn't suggest anyone use a CD...we didn't use one, and therefore I can't recommend it. But I will reiterate that MR was extremely useful. I personally wouldn't like a CD bossing me around!

love
roxy

roxy--it did occur to me, and
funny you mention pulling over to stretch the legs!! We did that just to see what would happen, and you guessed it. The next 3 cars stopped, parked, and when we didn't walk anywhere, they left. I certainly didn't want to start a debate! We saw some stuff in the book, and some stuff that wasn't. It's too bad we missed some stuff-we'll just have to go back & do it again!! It's still a great adventure, and the book or CD won't hurt. Did you ever wonder who counted all the turns on the RTH???