hiking the westernmost point of o’ahu

Also known as Ka’ena Point State Park, Ka’ena means, “heat” in the Hawaiian language. And not without reason – this 5 mile round trip hike provides no relief from the sun, as there aren’t many trees around for shade. What it does provide is excellent coastal views. There’s also a bird (moli) sanctuary, and some Hawaiian monk seal spottings at the end of the trail, depending on the time of year you visit.

My sister and I (beginner hikers) completed the trail in 2 hours and 45 minutes, but this also included all the time we took for various photo ops. There are a few narrow and tricky bends on the trail but for the most part, the hike is pretty flat and definitely doable. Just be sure to bring sunscreen and lots of water!

kaena-point-state-park-1
Views of the valley on the drive to Ka’ena Point
kaena-point-state-park-11

kaena-point-state-park-39
One of the narrower parts of the trail
kaena-point-state-park-43
Moli
kaena-point-state-park-51
Hawaiian folklore says that Ka’ena was the jumping off point for souls to leave this world to meet up with their ancestors
kaena-point-state-park-60
Managed to climb onto this old WWII bunker

2 thoughts on “hiking the westernmost point of o’ahu

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s