The Tree Tunnel (Maluhia Road)

In 1992 Hurricane Iniki took every leaf off this mile of road and left a corridor of bare poles. Residents said it would grow back. Within a few years it had, and the canopy over Maluhia Road today is those same trees rather than a replanting. There are more than 500 of them, swamp mahogany eucalyptus, standing along both sides of the road that runs from Knudsen Gap up toward Koloa and closing overhead for about three quarters of a mile. Kauai County has recognised the tunnel since 1976, as one thing rather than as 500 things, which is also how anybody driving through it experiences the place. Who planted it is not settled. The version you will hear most often credits Walter Duncan McBryde, said to have run leftover nursery stock from his Kukuiolono estate down the lane around 1911. A competing local account credits the Knudsen family, planting to firm up a marshy track and break the wind coming across it. Nobody has produced a document that closes the argument, so both are worth knowing. It is the gateway to the south shore, which means it is a working road. The shoulder is narrow. Most people take it slowly and look up.