Thursday Trails: Lulumahu Falls

Two weeks. That's how long this hike took. Two separate Thursdays. Two attempts. Two treks through ridiculous mud. But...we made it. 

Lulumahu Falls. What a beautiful sight! I heard about this hike via social media---snaps on a friends Snapchat, reviews on Yelp, photos on Instagram. I was determined to have a snap, review, and Insta-pic or two of my own. I wanted to capture the experience for myself.

Geared up and parked with my five year old and Thursday morning hiking partner, we took on attempt number one. Mud sloshing, hill climbing, pictures of the reservoir, and graffiti wall discovered. We felt excited that we were on the path to a waterfall. 

Then, somehow, we ended up off the trail and hiking up the side of the muddiest, rockiest, root-iest mile or two of mountain possible...with a five year old. After an hour or more of complaints, iffy footing, and getting covered in dirt, we gave up. We turned around and gloomily headed back to the car, missing the spectacular waterfall we came to see and feeling unsure about our hiking intelligence. 

Second try. We had to. We knew the falls existed. We made great time and hit all the markers. Then we hit the "fork in the road". The determing point. The place we went astray the previous week. We made the opposite decision and discovered the trail we missed on our previous attempt. Victory! Several stream crossings and rock jumping scenarios led us directly to the clear, crisp water known as Lulumahu Falls. Feeling like the first people to ever discover this waterfall, we took photo after photo after photo...I think we couldn't believe we had actually made it. 

I've seen several waterfalls living here on O'ahu, but none as satisfying as Lulumahu. Knowing we made two treks through less than ideal conditions made arrival to the falls that much sweeter. 

I would definitely venture on this hike again. It's not terribly difficult, it's just a little confusing to this novice hiker. This hike is a wet one. From start to finish there are all forms of wet, water, slosh, rain, mud, puddles, streams, and reservoirs. Plan accordingly. 

Lulumahu waterfall hike. Check. Impressing myself with my persistence. Check. Taking dorkiest pictures ever. Check. Ruining a pair of shoes from hiking. Check. Loving O'ahu even more. Check. 

The dirt on my shoes, socks...car were worth it because in addition to enjoying the waterfall, we treated ourselves to the most scrumptious pita sandwich for lunch---deluxe falafel from Shaloha. ⬇️