Maunawili Falls Trail

Here we start the beginning of our adventures with Kathryn, my sister.  She came to stay with us for two weeks during her winter break from her last semester of graduate school and kept us very busy with lots and lots of excursions (lots of fun!).

When moving out to Hawaii, I knew there would be rain.  But what that didn't equate to in my head was the mud.  Not mud everywhere, but anywhere there are canopies.  Like hiking trails.  Now that I've come to terms with the copious amounts of mud on these trails, I've learned to always bring towels and a change of clothes and shoes.

We knew this hike would be a muddy one and we were mostly mentally prepared.  The hike begins in a neighborhood with no parking lot.  I'm not sure I would like to live there with all the trail traffic, but I guess it's something you know before buying there.  At the end of the road, a gated paved road starts with very, VERY muddy shoes hanging from a powerline overhead.  Down that road a little bit, a trail begins off the road and at the trailhead are a pile of wooden walking sticks.  Joe was the only one smart enough to grab one.  We begin down the path and it only gets muddier.  We came across a muddy family on their way back and the little boy insisted I take his walking stick as it would save me repeatedly.  I accepted, and boy was I glad I had it.  Lots and lots of mud.  The trail follows a stream which we had to cross at one point to stay on the trail.  Following that was a fairly steep climb up some stairs (metal plates put in to prevent erosion) to a beautiful lookout.  After the lookout was a steep climb down similar steps that dump you back into the stream.  At that point, you have to wade through the stream to get to the falls (pretty cool if you ask me).

Once reaching the falls, there were people jumping into the water hole from many different spots.  The lowest spot (and the one Kathryn and I jumped from) was probably 8-10 feet up.  For the next spot people were climbing the falls, crossing at the top, and scaling around to a point about 20-25 feet up.  Crazy enough, there was someone that jumped across the way at about 30 feet.  We tried a quick check of how deep the hole was before jumping and couldn't touch.  At that point, after seeing everyone else jumping and no bottom found, we figured the lowest spot would be safe.  Even from a low spot, it was a bit of a rush to jump.

The hike was an out-and-back, so we then followed the same path back.  We were in a bit of a hurry on the way back (we had a luau scheduled for that night), so we didn't stop at the lookouts on the way back.  It is not a long trail, only about 3 miles, but takes a very long time due to the mud.  Very cool hike if you're looking for a waterfall and don't mind getting muddy while slip-sliding around.

Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail

Oh, oh Makapu'u.  This hike (and I use that word loosely) is a widely accessible, paved hike lasting about 2-2.5 miles round trip.  It is wide enough to get a golf cart or emergency vehicle up.  The trail has been recently renovated and repaired, improving lookouts and pavement conditions.

There are several scenic lookouts on the way up with the end of the trail being entirely scenic.  The trail ends at a recently built lookout point to Makapu'u Beach and Waimanalo Beach.  The Makapu'u point is home to a lighthouse, marking the southeast corner of Oahu.  To actually see the lighthouse, we had to hike up and adjacent hill to the top to see it.  We've been told you can go around the other side, off the paved path, and see the lighthouse as well (Kathryn got around during her visit and got up close).  It still seems a bit odd to me that they built all of this up, but didn't make the lighthouse viewable.  But I digress...

On the way back, we hiked down a cliff path towards some tide pools and a blow hole known as dragon's nostrils. We realized half-way down that we needed better trail shoes with real tread, but it was still a very cool site to see and the blow hole was awesome.  We would like to go back at low time and swim in the tide pools (we didn't bring our swim suits that day).

From the months of November-March, humpback whales can be seen along this hike migrating in the Hawaiian waters.  Unfortunately, we did not see any the day we hiked, but Kathryn did while she was here visiting.

Overall, very family-friendly hike and very accessible to many people.  Nice views, quick and easily. 

Pillbox Trail

Unfortunately, here is another post that I have been delinquent on posting.  We did this hike in the beginning of September on a Saturday, so unfortunately there were quite a few people on the trail.  That being said, there was plenty of room for everyone.

                                 

The Pillbox trail is located in Lanikai, which is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  It is about 2-3 miles from Kailua Beach, a personal favorite of ours.  Parking is a bit of an issue in this area, but we got lucky this day.  

The hike starts pretty steep with plenty of trees to grab for support.  After breaking out of the trees, the remainder of the trail was exposed to the elements and was a mix of flat and steep rocks to climb, but nothing too difficult.  We saw many people doing this hike in flip flops (though everyone I saw slip was in those, so probably not a good idea).

Once reaching the ridge line, the pill boxes can be accessed fairly easily.  These pill boxes were used as lookouts for Kaneohe Bay (occupied by the navy at the time) and Bellows Beach and air field (still operated by the Air Force) during World War II.  The views continue to be amazing and allow you to see from Kaneohe Bay to Kailua Bay to Lanikai Beach to Bellows Beach.

Straight out from the pill boxes in Lanikai are the mokes, two off shore uninhabited islands (kayaking post to come regarding these guys).

Overall, I would classify this hike as an advanced beginner hike, with ages from young children (maybe around 4 or 5) to active older adults enjoying the trail.

Aiea Loop Trail

With as many fun things as there are to do in Hawaii, not everything is puppy-friendly.  I had been wanting to get Molly out and involved in some of our excursions, so I did some research on dog-friendly hikes.  One I had heard of from patients and found online was the Aiea Loop Trail.  The first weekend we tried to go, I looked up final directions to get there only to find out the trail was closed (and had been for a while) due to a landslide on the trail.  A bit frustrated, we rescheduled this hike.  Luckily enough, they re-opened the trail in the next few days.

The trail is part of a state park in central Oahu above a heavily populated area of Aiea (yes, there actually are words that have no constants, take that elementary school English).  There was a lot of back and forth switch backs while ascending the hills, but Molly stayed posted up between Joey and me the whole way.

The trail was relatively flat for a Hawaii trail, but oh so, soooo muddy.  The loop worked in a high-to-low (or vice-versa) way so that we had a steep hill to climb at the end to get back to the car.  I had no idea it would be so muddy though, and poor Molly got sprayed down at a water spicket after we were done. The trail was about 4 miles long and Molly trail-blazed the whole way.  Most of the trail was wooded with a tree canopy, but there were many scenic lookout spots as well. Funny enough, when we got to the spot of the trail where the landslide was, it was still there.  I had made the assumption that they had closed the trail to get parks maintenance in there to clear it back up, but I guess they just wanted to make sure the surrounding area had stabilized.  Scaling that was probably the toughest part of the trail. 

We came across quite a few people during the hike, and one of them were carrying a chameleon on a stick.  Bizarre, yes, but very cool.  Apparently the 3-horned chameleon is regularly found along the trail if you know where to look for them.  Of course, we immediately started looking for them and found a big fat zero chameleons.  Oh well, we still enjoyed the hike.  I've since been told there is an off-shoot at the lower end of the loops (behind a sign that says no trail beyond) that leads to a waterfall.  We did not check that out, so we'll have to see it next time.

Overall, not a very challenging hike, just a little long, very muddy, with a steep hill to climb at the end.  

Paradise Cove Turtles

It seems life has gotten a little in the way of keeping up with this blog.  After returning to work full time and trying to keep the rest of my life on track, this blog seemed to fall to the wayside.  Have no fear, one of my New Year's resolutions is to pick it back up and keep it active.  With a recent visit from my sister, I will have plenty of material to write about as she has kept us VERY busy.

This next post is actually from quite a while ago.  We went to Paradise Cove with my parents when they came to visit back in July, but Kathryn and I went again during her winter vacation with us.  Paradise Cove is a small, man-made, protected cove with a surprising amount of marine life.  Making a natural safety barrier from predators, sea turtles have found this to be a desirable location at high tide.

On our first visit, we made the mistake of arriving as the tide was just starting to come in.  We were about to give up when all of a sudden a turtle surfed a wave into the cove.  He was a hit with everyone there (many families with little kids) and had no fear of visitors.  I think these turtles have been hand-fed a few snacks over time and are checking out if anyone has something for them.  The turtle hung around quite a bit and all around the people.  Despite many encounters with turtles in the wild while scuba diving, this was a very cool experience.

Unfortunately while Kathryn was here, we saw no turtles.  We got there at the perfect time (early before crowds, at high tide), but to no avail.  I have since been told that the turtles have recently been hanging out at the mouth of the cove on the ocean side, but we didn't venture that far.

Overall, a neat spot to check out with a chance to see turtles.  Would be a great spot for kids to play.  Unfortunately, this site only has about 10 public parking spots.  The same beach is used by the Paradise Cove Luau (post to come) and all of the surrounding parking spots are saved for that.