Hiking to Ka'ena Point
Apr. 10th, 2022 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerHawaii April Travelog #4
Ka'ena Point, HI - Sat, 9 Apr, 2022, 12pm
For our first outdoors excursion this trip to the island of Oahu, we chose to hike out to Ka'ena Point. It's on the remote western tip of the island. It fascinated us as we looked at it through the aircraft window on our final approach to the island on our previous visit, in December. It was on our list of places to visit back then— after seeing it from 5,000' up— but it fell behind the various waterfalls we chose to visit. We didn't get to it then, so it was high on our list now. Thus our first hike this trip.
There are two ways to Ka'ena Point: around the west, and around the north. We drove up the island's west coast, through towns like Waianae. The drive at around 9:30am was pleasant. Once we got past the edge of metro Honolulu the highway emptied out and there was little traffic. Especially once we neared the park we almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We parked at the road's end. ...Well, the paved road's end. A rough dirt road extended about 1/3 mile further. It was too rough for our rented Ford Mustang convertible, though it would've been a walk in the park (ha!) for our Nissan Xterra 4x4 back in California.
As we started the hike with towering cliffs above us to our right, the best views were actually behind us. Not that the other side wasn't nice, too. Along the coast were plenty of rocky ledges with occasional boulder-strewn cove beaches and tidepools.
In a few places the rocky ledges had arches. Above you can see me standing atop one of them. In the distance behind me is Ka'ena Point.
Ka'ena Point is both the tip of the island and the tip of the triangular mountain looming above it.
Ka'ena is Hawaiian for "The Heat", and let me tell you, that's an accurate name. It was hot on this hike. Though the day's high back in Honolulu was forecast at about 81°, out here it felt like 90+... and that was at 11am. We brought a gallon of water between us for this approximately 5 mile hike and tapped it out just before getting back to the car.
Ka'ena Point, HI - Sat, 9 Apr, 2022, 12pm
For our first outdoors excursion this trip to the island of Oahu, we chose to hike out to Ka'ena Point. It's on the remote western tip of the island. It fascinated us as we looked at it through the aircraft window on our final approach to the island on our previous visit, in December. It was on our list of places to visit back then— after seeing it from 5,000' up— but it fell behind the various waterfalls we chose to visit. We didn't get to it then, so it was high on our list now. Thus our first hike this trip.
There are two ways to Ka'ena Point: around the west, and around the north. We drove up the island's west coast, through towns like Waianae. The drive at around 9:30am was pleasant. Once we got past the edge of metro Honolulu the highway emptied out and there was little traffic. Especially once we neared the park we almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We parked at the road's end. ...Well, the paved road's end. A rough dirt road extended about 1/3 mile further. It was too rough for our rented Ford Mustang convertible, though it would've been a walk in the park (ha!) for our Nissan Xterra 4x4 back in California.
As we started the hike with towering cliffs above us to our right, the best views were actually behind us. Not that the other side wasn't nice, too. Along the coast were plenty of rocky ledges with occasional boulder-strewn cove beaches and tidepools.
In a few places the rocky ledges had arches. Above you can see me standing atop one of them. In the distance behind me is Ka'ena Point.
Ka'ena Point is both the tip of the island and the tip of the triangular mountain looming above it.
Ka'ena is Hawaiian for "The Heat", and let me tell you, that's an accurate name. It was hot on this hike. Though the day's high back in Honolulu was forecast at about 81°, out here it felt like 90+... and that was at 11am. We brought a gallon of water between us for this approximately 5 mile hike and tapped it out just before getting back to the car.
