Hiking Diamond Head Crater

Oahu travelog #14
Diamond Head, HI - Mon, 27 Dec 2021, 9:30am

This morning we got up bright and early to hike Hawaii's Diamond Head Crater. ...Actually, we were up so early it wasn't even bright. We got up before dawn to beat the crowds at this popular tourist spot. Alas we weren't early enough! By the time we arrived in the park just after 7am there was already a long line to park, and another long line to buy hiking tickets. Yes, pay to park and pay to hike. But at least it was via convenient kiosks instead of an antiquated, hidden web site like Lulumahu Falls.

One thing I only learned like, yesterday, is that Hawaii's famous Diamond Head is actually Diamond Head Crater. I'd only ever seen views like this one before:



This is a picture I took the other day from a very chill park down in Waikiki. From angles like this it's like, "Yup, that's a steep mountain with lots of canyon folds on its sides."

Then when you get up to the rim you see it looks like this inside:



So, what did it take to get from the first picture to the second picture? A lot of hiking. Uphill hiking.

Some of it is on ramps that just go up, up, up...



...And were crowded. It was like a human escalator on the busy trail today.

And speaking of escalators, there were also long staircases in parts:



But after all that huffing and puffing we break out at the top of Diamond Head with amazing 360° views, including down over Waikiki.



I'm glad we started this trail early in the day. We finished all the hard uphill hiking while it was still relatively cool out and I think we avoid the worst of the crowds— though they were still intense. Fortunately there's enough beauty around for everyone to walk in.

The Halona Blowhole

Oahu travelog #15
Sandy Beach Park, HI - Mon, 27 Dec 2021, 4pm

By 2pm today we already felt like it had been a busy day. We were up before dawn to head out to Diamond Head Crater, where we had a great hike along with what seemed like half the population of Honolulu. We returned to the hotel and got lunch from a nearby food truck, then we went out to the beach for a while. For a day that was originally supposed to be overcast all day (as of yesterday's forecast) it's been sunny and warm all day. Get while the getting's good!

By 2:30 we were wondering what else we could do while the daylight lasted. We were tired from what we'd done already (the hike and the beach) and concerned about how long it would take to jump in the car and go anywhere. We checked our maps, though, and found... the Halona Blowhole! It was just 11 miles east of Waikiki along the coast highway. That still took about 35 minutes to drive to.

Watch on YouTube

There's a parking area along the edge of the cliff from where you can watch the Halona Blowhole in action. That's where I stood as I recorded the video shown above. When a big enough wave crashes against the lower tier of rocks, water is forced up through a crevice and shoots out in a huge fountain.

You can see in the video there are people down near the blowhole. Getting there semi-safely involves a hike from the Sandy Beach Park beach access about 1/2 mile further up the road.



You can see I say semi-safely because there are a lot of wet rocks to cross to get back to where the blowhole is.

To the west of the blowhole is an interesting cove beach.



The wave action in this little cove is fierce. 6-foot breakers pound the body surfers repeatedly. There looks to be no undertow or riptide, though. I presume that's because it's a slot cove. The folks getting pounded in the water seemed to be enjoying it. I can imagine I would have, too, when I was a younger man.

Surfers at Sandy Beach

Oahu travelog #16
Sandy Beach Park, HI - Mon, 27 Dec 2021, 4pm

Just up the road from the Halona Blowhole is Sandy Beach. It's a fairly nice beach that seems popular with locals. I gauge "locals" here by the number of a) lifted pickup trucks, b) beaters with really loud radios, and c) lifted beater pickup trucks with really loud radios. 😂

One thing that visiting beaches outside of Waikiki reminds me is how tame the waves in Waikiki are. The breakers are only 1-2' tall. That makes the surf pretty chill for just about anyone to go in. Here, though, the waves are a little rougher— which makes it better for surfers.

Watch on YouTube

This is no North Shore, but these waves are more like what I was used to seeing as a kid growing up on the Atlantic coast.

Lanai Lookout

Oahu travelog #18
Koko Head, HI - Mon, 27 Dec 2021, 4:30pm

After visiting the Halona Blowhole and Sandy Beach in our last-minute bonus round late this afternoon we made time for one more outdoors stop, at Lanai Lookout. Here instead of basalt cliffs there are tilted layers of eroded rock. People hop the guardrail and clamber down the cliffs.



There are great views out here.



Behind us is Koko Head, another mountain/crater kind of like Diamond Head Crater, but on a smaller scale.



The rocks down here on the lower slope are interesting. They're layered and eroded, like sandstone. But I doubt they are sandstone, given that we're standing atop a 20,000' tall volcano in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I believe instead this is tuff, volcanic ash, that was deposited in layers.



As we headed back up the slope we saw a wedding party coming down. I captured a shot of the newlyweds with Koko Head in the background. It reminds me of the last time we were in Hawaii, 4 years ago, for a destination wedding of our friends Beth and John.