Na Pohaku O Hauwahine

Awhile ago some friends told us about a spot off of Kapaa Quarry Road (i.e. Dump Road) that they liked to visit.  We had some time one weekend afternoon and went and checked it out.  Calling it a hike is probably a bit of an overstatement – it’s more of a walk, but there are some slight elevation changes and you walk over varied terrain so that’s the hike part of it.

There were a number of trails to choose from and we started out by hiking up to the highest spot we could.  Our friends said they call that spot Pride Rock and as we stood on the top we could see how they came up with that name.  

We told our boy, a huge Lion King fan, that name and he got super excited and immediately tried to assign each of us roles from the story and wanted to act it all out right then and there.  We declined and instead enjoyed the view of the marsh and Kailua in the distance.

We continued to follow various trails and made our way down to the marsh and found a trail built out over it. 

Walking on that reminded me of walking on tundra.  It was really neat.  Our boy quickly headed up to higher ground though to find more rocks to boulder on.  That was definitely his favorite activity!

We didn’t take our backpack carrier and instead let our girl walk when she wanted and carried her in our arms when she wanted up.  The trails were short enough that worked out okay.

This was definitely a neat spot, and quite a surprise.  It felt like we were much farther away from the road than we really were, and the view was different than I’ve seen from any other place.

Do it yourself:

The trailhead for this spot is between the Pali Hwy and the Kapaa Transfer Station (the dump) on Kapaa Quarry Road.  There are pull-outs on both sides of the road and a sign marking the trail.