Sara Benson is a prolific travel journalist whose career has taken her skipping across the Pacific from California to Japan and back, including stints living on Maui, the Big Island of Hawaii, and Oahu. Her first backpacking experience in Hawaii was at Haleakala National Park on Maui, to which she has returned countless times over the last 15 years. Sara has worked as a national park ranger and is an avid hiker everywhere she travels. For this guide, she rehiked every trail on Maui described in this book, racking up well more than 100 miles on all types of terrain, from jagged lava flows and cinder deserts to misty cloud forests and muddy waterfall paths. Sara is the author of dozens of travel and outdoor activity guidebooks, including for Lonely Planet and Fodor’s. She has traveled to every continent except Antarctica and has visited over 30 countries. Her writing regularly appears in newspapers and magazines around the world, including the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Backpacker, as well as on popular travel and news websites.