Jackass Ginger Pool

Oh my, please pardon the language in the post title, I know this is a family site.  But that's what everyone calls the spot we went to this past weekend.  I could make up a new name I guess, but that would just be really confusing.

To get there, we hiked the Judd Trail and then took a side trail down to the pool.  We had a group of teens and tweens with us and they enjoyed swimming in the pool, jumping in off the rocks and swinging on a rope swing and landing in the pool.  I'm not really an advocate of jumping into water when you can't see the bottom and I'm completely against diving into water when you can't see the bottom, but no one was injured while we were there.  Hooray!

There's a natural little rock slide on one side of the waterfall (water cascade is probably a more accurate description) and our boy enjoyed sliding down that into the pool a couple times.  Our girl waded in the water above the falls/cascade until someone pointed a crawdad out to her and then she wasn't so sure she wanted her feet in the water.  I think I'll wear my swimsuit and get in next time, crawdad and all!


Do it yourself on Oahu:

• If you hike the Judd Memorial Trail in a clockwise direction, the cutoff to Jackass Ginger Pool will be on your left after you've started on the downhill portion of the loop.  You can see the stream from the loop trail at the cutoff.  If your main destination is the pool, then hike the loop counterclockwise or head directly down the stream to get to the pool.
• Beware that leptospirosis can be found in Hawaii's streams.  We stay out of the water if we have open cuts and I remind my kids to keep their mouths closed when they swim in the water.