the (lush and nerve racking) road to hana

i've driven this road and these tips are ESSENTIAL!! ignore at your peril. the most important, probably, is leave early. you don't want to be doing a return trip in the dark and rain (my personal opinion, having done exactly that). and you have to do the return trip because continuing around the other side of the island would be a violation of your car rental contract (even if, you're in an offroad vehicle). they say it's 2.5hrs w/o stopping one way, but who's going to do that? realistically, it can easily be a full day's experience (10hrs or more) also, there are many spots that are one lane so, if there's cars coming from the other direction, someone is going to have to pullover or backup. both can be scary moves. throw in the over 620 curves (a fair number of which are blind ones) or hairpin turns and 59 bridges....the driver MUST keep his/her eyes on the road. the road to hana has been rated the 5th most dangerous route in the world so, leave the tourist viewing to your passengers. my wife and i didn't leave as early as we should have and got to hana in the afternoon (with stops along the way). it did lead to one of the most memorable part of our trip. we hiked to see a waterfall, and it was getting dark (being in a bamboo forest didn't help with the lighting). by the time we headed back, it was dark and raining. we had no flashlight to see the rocks and roots along the trail. suddenly, we heard something crashing through the forest. as we approached, we saw a large ominous shadow blocking the trail. what was it??!? bear? moose? bigfoot? sorry, we're canadian, eh. we stood frozen, not knowing what to do. after a moment, the moon broke through the clouds and it offered enough light to let us see that the creature was a steer. finally, the standoff ended with the beast going back in the forest. at my current age (64), i don't think i'll be doing that drive, again. my TIP: flashlight; plenty of gas since there are no gas stations; you might consider buying an guide app for your phone; if you see cars backed up behind you, you should consider pulling over when you can do so safely to let cars pass. aloha....