The most famous modern landmark in the Kipahulu area is Oheo Gulch -- the so-called "Seven Sacred Pools." There are more than seven pools along the Oheo stream and none of them were ever sacred, but the hype still prevails. The gulch is the southern end of Haleakala National Park. It is part of the 11,000 acres of Kipahulu Valley that was jointly purchased by the Nature Conservancy and the state and added to Haleakala National Park in 1969.

Above the pools, in the upper reaches of the Kipahulu Valley, is the dense vegetation of pristine native rainforest, and many waterfalls. It is a home to many of the island's endangered native plants and animals. Among these are the Maui parrotbill and the Maui nukupuku, an endangered endemic honeycreeper. This area gets up to 300 inches of rain a year.

The stream is also the home of a rare goby fish which spends part of its life in the ocean but returns to breed in the upper stream. To get to its breeding grounds, the fish uses its front fins as suction cups on the rocks as it works its way up the chain of pools and waterfalls.

The village of Kipahulu is less than a mile from Oheo Gulch. Large, exclusive estates and more modest homes make up the village today. A scattering of roadside stands offer flowers and fruit to the flock of tourists who tend to turn back towards Hana at about this point.

Around the turn of the century, Kipahulu was one of several sugar plantation villages along this coast. It even had a working mill from 1890 to 1922. When the mill closed, attempts were made to grow pineapples. This did not work. Ranching took hold in the late 1920s, and continues today.