Ka'ena Point Hike

In the words of Greenday, "Welcome to paradise." That's what I thought making my way up the rocky trail that ends at the western most tip of Oahu. How could I not think of paradise with green mountains on one side and blue sky and ocean on the other?

Last weekend we did a hike with forest views (it was okay...we are super spoiled) and also the opposite side of the mountain from where we hiked today. That's right, there are two (kinda) Ka'ena Point hiking trails. One trail starts past Mokuleia (considered Northshore) and the other (today's adventure) starts past Makaha (considered the Westside). As I'm sure you have figured out, the two trails meet. Since we usually roll with a 4 and 12 year old, we decided to break up the trail---one portion last week and the other, more beautiful portion this week!

Both Ka'ena trails are family friendly, good for novice hikers, hot, and in winter, perfect for whale viewing. But, the coastlines are quite different. Today's black rocked coastline was very different than the typical sandy coastline. I was really drawn to it. 

We started early to avoid heat stroke. This worked to our favor in that we had the trail almost entirely to ourselves...until we saw a team of bicyclists. I would NOT recommend this mode of transportation. Hashtag popped tire. 

If you haven't experienced the Ka'ena Point trail, I hope you'll plan to try it out. There were no negatives to it. Well, maybe just the drive time to get there from our house. But, we can't have it all can we?

Waking up before the sun was worth all 4.7 miles we logged today. That hashtag you see all over Instagram---"luckywelivehawaii" is because of places like this. Where else can you beach it, hike it, city life it, wildlife it? Shhh. Don't tell me. Don't want my paradise bubble to burst.

Even abandoned trucks are living the life. 

And especially kiddos on daddy's shoulders. 

Until our next hike, aloha!