Taking advantage of the rainy week that was saturating most of the island, a bunch of us met at Swanzy Beach Park to hike up to Makaua Falls. I picked out a few familiar faces in the crowd: Marcus, Aaron, Kelly and Randy. Photo by Ashley Douglas.

Follow the rainbow

Following the rainbow down Kamehameha Highway, that would hopefully lead us to a raging waterfall. We soon hanged a left at the fire station and went straight into Makaua valley. Be mindful of noise as the trailhead cuts directly between houses.

Caveman briefing

We paused briefly at the junction, going straight takes you to the waterfall and going left takes you to another hike.

How’s the temperature?

Marcus playing lifeguard in case Randy and Orion showed signs of hypothermia while playing in one of the pools along the way. I understand the water was pretty much ice cold.

Rock hopping

The trail is pretty straight forward, most of us alternated between following the stream or taking the trail that parallels the stream. While heavy rain turns on the waterfall, it also injects possibility of flash flooding and rocks falling from above. Photo by Kelly Quinn.

Small waterfall

Marcus and Randy spotting on our first little waterfall. Expect to get wet and muddy on this hike.

Spottee and Spotters

A tad more challenging climbing up this section under their watchful eyes. Photo by Stephen Jonas.

A path less traveled

Tony decided to take the less rocky path that was covered with heavy vegetation, more hand holds perhaps?

Tree climbing

A huge tree had fallen onto the stream, roots and all. Made a nice little jungle gym. Photo by Kelly Quinn.

Another view of Makaua Falls

We were not alone. Ted and Lyzel had arrived earlier and were exploring the upper parts to find a path to the top. Photo by Ted Calvero.

Makaua Falls

Makaua Falls is usually bone dry without any significant amounts of rainfall. Today the falls was not raging, but still had a nice flow. Group photo left to right: Ted, Kim, Lyzel, Stephen, Orion, Bridgette, Tony, Marcus, Aaron, BobbiJo, Randy, myself, Ashley, Allicia and Kelly.

Headed back

Rain started falling on us as we made our way back. Good time to beat any flash flooding that may come our way. Photo by Kelly Quinn.

GPS Tracks

The hike was just over two miles roundtrip that brought us to a nice waterfall tucked away in Makaua Valley. Some of us had lunch at Brick Oven Pizza after the hike, service was trickling, much like our waterfall today.

Having hiked Pu’u Manamana back in February, I wanted to try a different connecting trail from Kahekili to Manamana . With that being said, we drove to Ka’awa on the Windward side and parked at Swanzy Beach Park.

Start of the trail

We walked up North on Kamehameha Highway and turned left into Huamalani Street right by the fire station. The trailhead is at the end of the street between two houses, can’t miss it, just try to ignore the sounds of the large dogs barking and hope they are leashed.

View towards the ocean

The beginning of the trail is flat with low hanging trees which quickly turned into an uphill climb as we pushed into Makaua valley. Within mere minutes, we had gained enough elevation to look into the valley below.

Pu'u Kahekili

The ridge trail to Pu’u Kahekili, which is the triangular peak looming over Ka’awa Valley, flattened out and we soon came across an old pillbox or military bunker left over from the war days. 

Near the peak

The flat part of the trail soon gave way to steep climbs up the mountain, that was partially assisted by ropes strategically placed by unknown hikers. Views of the Kualoa Mountains and the front part of Ka’awa Valley opened up to us as we neared the peak.

Peak of Pu'u Kahekili

We made the peak of Pu’u Kahekili in about an hour, we didn’t actually climb to the top of the peak as the trail contours to the right of the peak and down into Makaua or Hidden Valley.

Down to the valley

Scrambling down into the thicket of tangled tree branches and roots made for an interesting descent down into the valley.

Stream

We made it to the bottom of this stagnant streambed that was feeding a waterfall trickling into the valley below, but didn’t stay long as clouds of mosquitoes were feasting on us for lunch.

Pu'u Manamana

We pushed our way up though the heavily overgrown vegetated trail consisting mostly of uluhe ferns. Wearing long pants on this hike is highly recommended. From the top, we had a better view of the Kualoa Mountains and as far as the eye could see to Kaneohe. Looking at the Kualoa Mountains, I was wondering if it’s possible to climb them?

Going down the ridge

I believe there are three ways of going down the mountain. One of course is the way we came up from Kahekili. The other two are the trails going down Cemetery Ridge and Pu’u Manamana Ridge, we chose the latter which is the trail to the right as you face the ocean.

Kahana Valley and Bay

Going down the ridge is pretty much all downhill, affording us some great views from Kahana Valley stretching to Laie.

Up and down

Well, the ridge is not exactly all downhill as there are various rock formations we had to climb up and down. But that’s what makes ridge hikes fun!

Looking back

Here is a panoramic view of the Kahekili ridge and part of the Manamana ridge.

Still going down

As we came down closer to the ocean, we could see the knob to the right known as Crouching Lion which overlooks the restaurant bearing the same name. We had already climbed to the rock formation on our last hike, so we bypassed it going down.

Kamehameha Highway

Five hours later, we were on Kamehameha Highway walking South back to our car. We stopped at the 7-11 and had a quick lunch at the beach park. It’s amazing how a simple tuna sandwhich and a can of soda tastes after you’ve had a good hiking workout.