Moanalua Valley to Haiku Stairs

by kenji SAITO on May 15, 2011

Having hiked Haiku Stairs from the Windward side before the sun has even cracked the day due to access issues, I have found there is another way to get to the top of Haiku Stairs, without skulking around in the dark! That being said, I picked up my friend in Kaneohe and drove into Moanalua Valley and parked at the end of Ala Aolani Street which is right before the park. We climbed over the fence and came across some hunters who were opening the second gate to the trail. They asked us if we were hiking to Haiku Stairs and gave us a couple of pointers and we started out on the old Damon Estate road now known as the Kamananui valley road that took us an hour to reach the Kulana’ahane trailhead.

Middle ridge

Middle ridge

We walked about 30 feet past the trailhead markers and crossed the river bed and started working our way up the ridge. If you cross the stream at the trailhead markers, that will take you to the Moanalua Saddle which also leads to Haiku Stairs, but I understand it’s intense okole busting.

Moanalua Valley

Moanalua Valley

Here we are looking back into Moanalua valley with the ridge splitting the valley into two. We also caught glimpses of the Windward side over the Koolau mountains.

Clouds rolling in

Clouds rolling in

Pushing up the ridge, the clouds started to roll in and the wind started to pick up, Mother Nature’s air conditioner was cranking full blast.

Where's the ridge?

Where's the ridge?

At this point in the hike, the clouds and the wind made it a real challenge to walk on the ridge. Luckily, heavy mud glued our feet to the ground as we trudged along the heavily vegetated trail.

Pu'u Keahiakahoe

Pu'u Keahiakahoe

We came upon the geodetic marker for Pu’u Keahiakahoe at an elevation of 2,820 feet after hiking for about three hours. We had zero visibility thanks to the clouds that had enveloped us at the peak. But we knew the CCL building had to be close by, so we branched off to the right from the sign, hoping the clouds would clear up soon.

CCL building

CCL building

After hiking for about 10 minutes, our hiking prayers were answered and the clouds cleared up to reveal the CCL building.

Kaneohe

Kaneohe

We carefully made our way along the ridge towards the CCL building, with steep drop off views of H3 and Likelike highway snaking through Kaneohe.

H3 freeway

H3 freeway

From the CCL building, we saw the H3 freeway disappear into the cloud capped Koolau mountains. To the left, is the ridge that comes up from the Moanalua Saddle, another trail for another day.

Mokoli'i Island

Mokoli'i Island

From this direction, we could see all the way up to Kualoa Ranch and Mokoli’i Island sitting offshore, or more commonly known as Chinaman’s Hat.

Haiku Stairs

Haiku Stairs

Looking down at all 3,922 of Haiku Stairs. One thing that was strikingly missing from this hike was the absence of other hikers. We had not run across another soul from the start of Moanalua valley to the top of Haiku Stairs. Where did they all go?

Olomana

Olomana

Coming down the stairs, we saw the Mokulua Islands, Olomana and Waokele Pond before the clouds started spilling over the Koolau mountains and splattering us with a light rain.

Hoist house

Hoist house

We stopped to take a breather at the graffiti covered hoist house. Hmm, A-frame, pulley, could a zip line be in the works one day?

Going down

Going down

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, the guard asked us if we saw a dog up there. On the stairs? He said hunters were looking for their missing dog. Then he casually threw in that he had called the cops about 15 minutes ago when he saw us coming down the stairs. He said there were some recent injuries, so they were really cracking down. That explains the lack of hikers. We beat a hasty retreat, found out that the hole in the fence that we had used months ago was now fixed up, so we had to scale the fence and walked back to my friend’s house in Haiku Gardens, where he drove me back to Moanalua Valley.

Leave a Comment

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

wayne September 7, 2011 at 7:52 pm

Great pic’s and story Kenji
A friend from the mainland and I want to do this hike in reverse- up Haiku.
looks like at the top of the stairs you go left- we DO NOT want to end up on the saddle- is this trail very well marked or do we just stay to the left?

Mahalos for ANY tips…(looks like 4-5 hours?…)
Wayne

Reply

kenji SAITO September 7, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Thanks Wayne for dropping by. Yes, when you reach the top of the stairs, you should take a left and follow the ridge which will take you to the geodisc marker and stay to the left again and basically follow the trail back down to Moanalua Valley. It should take about 4-5 hours, have fun!

Reply

Tim December 29, 2011 at 10:42 am

Do you know how log the trail is and how long did it take you?
I am estimating 5 hrs. But I saw another site saying it was an 11 mile hike that took them from 7 am-4 pm.

Thanks.

Reply

kenji SAITO December 29, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Hi Tim,
I believe the trail is about 5-6 miles from the valley to the stairs. It took us a little under 5 hours to complete the hike. The 11 mile might be if you do it round trip. As it’s technically illegal to set foot on the stairs, I heard others have gotten tickets from the police. There is a guard stationed at the bottom of the stairs and he will call the police once he sees hikers coming down the stairs. Be safe and have fun!

Reply

charles patterson October 23, 2014 at 11:21 am

I grew up in Lanikai, first went up the ladder in 71,, changed A lot , I saw before H3 every place was soo clean, to bad they they WRECKED haiku valley,,, when Mankind ,does this it can NEVER be repaired …..

Reply

kenji SAITO October 23, 2014 at 5:47 pm

Aloha Charles,
Wow must have been a lot different going up Haiku Stairs in the 70s. Saw some old pics back in the day. Stairway to Heaven has been getting so much hiker traffic lately, they have put 24/7 security and started handing out citations. Holding meetings on either opening it back up to the public or permanently shutting it down by tearing down the stairs. Tragic. Yeah, urban creep has pretty much restricted a lot of views and trailheads. Thanks for stopping by!
Mahalo

Reply

Previous post:

Next post: