Somewhere Above Sea Level: Hiking the Maunawili Falls Trail

For most people Hawaii means sandy beaches, surfers, and swaying palm trees. And this is certainly true for us- we love the ocean here and spend a good part of each day near the water. But last week I had the chance to explore some mauka, or inland, spots around Oahu. Though underappreciated, I found the mountains just as spectacular as the coastline. And in their own way, just as Hawaiian.

My friend Jen came for a weeklong visit, and we stayed busy exploring the island together. Like oil and water, Jen doesn't mix well with water sports. So she was surprised and pleased to find so much to do in Hawaii that didn't involve ocean activities at all.

Our first day out we decided on a relatively easy trail on the windward side of Oahu. The Maunawili Falls trail follows the jagged contour of the Koolau Mountains for several miles, before dropping down to one of the many streams that flow out of the mountains.

We picked up the trail just below the Nuuanu Pali Lookout, a popular tourist stop-off with spectacular views of the windward coastline and its communities:


Views of the Koolau peaks from the trail below:



View out to sea, from our hilltop lunch spot under the ironwood trees:


We didn't actually know the name of this particular tree until we visited a botanical garden later in the week, but I fell in love with it right away. The super long "needles" make an eerie whistling sound in the wind.



Actually MOST of the mountain plants were unfamiliar to us, and we didn't bring a plant guide along on the hike. But being resourceful souls, Jen and I made up our own names for the trees we encountered, to help us remember their traits until we could get home and look up them up. So the ironwood was "long needles-whistling sound" and the plant below we called "ohia-type white flower-willowy leaves", which I think is a Rose Apple tree:


Though we hiked on a clear, dry day we could tell by all the very green things we saw along the trail that this side of the mountains must typically get doused with rain:




Time to switch to water shoes for the last leg of the hike:


We didn't have the most accurate trail map that day, but every half hour or so we'd ask another hiker where the falls was, and they were happy to throw in their best estimate. Strangely, each and every one of them said it was just another twenty minutes down the trail....


Several hours later we were thrilled to hear the falls ahead- what we figured must be a lush, isolated waterfall out here in the bush. It came as a bit of a shock then to find we'd actually stumbled onto a local watering hole instead, loaded with teens drinking beer and jumping into the pool below the falls. Looked like fun, but I was a little chagrined to see everyone else in flip-flops. Clearly they had parked nearby and walked in.

Back on the trail, we picked up the pace. More certain of our route and motivated by a craving for Dave's Ice Cream we figured it'd be oh, just another twenty minutes or so back to the car.