City Exploration: Alapena Falls (or what I thought was Kapena Falls)

O'ahu is an oasis in the middle of the Pacific that contains numerous outdoor adventures for all skill levels.  If you are a water lover, there are countless beaches for you to swim, surf, sail, fish, or relax at.  If you are more of a land dweller, there is a trail (official or unofficial) that can be found in just about every part of the island---including the middle of the city.  Today, we took a mini hiking adventure right off of the Pali Highway...minutes away from office buildings, apartments, churches, and temples---proving there are natural gems hiding where we least expect them.

Kapena Falls was the location (or so I thought) of our mosquito ridden photo shoot/hike today.  I stumbled across this mini trail via Instagram.  There I was just scrolling through waterfall photo after waterfall photo when someone was finally kind enough to mention the name of the waterfall they were at---Kapena Falls.  That's what I read and researched.  I had not heard of this, so I looked it up, hoping it was indeed on O'ahu and not a magical waterfall on Maui, Kaua'i or the Big Island.  I read through several online descriptions (all of which warned against mass mosquito mayhem) and decided to venture towards the Nu'uanu/Pali area on a mission to find this city waterfall.

EDIT:
*** I initially wrote this blog thinking I was at Kapena Falls.  All the information and directions I had seemed to lead me to believe I was indeed at Kapena Falls...until a late night conversation with another hiking friend (who also visited Kapena Falls today) now leads me to believe that I was in fact at Alapena Falls...the close neighbor to Kapena.  I hope that my post is not too confusing now with this new information.  To clarify: I thought I was at Kapena when in fact I was at Alapena.  My photos and descriptions/complaints from this post are all for Alapena Falls.  I have modified this posts title to reflect my mistake. You can't make this stuff up!  LOL. ***

Parking was free, quick, and easy---not too many folks parked at the scenic lookout off the Pali overlooking Nu'uanu cemetery early on a Monday morning.  The trickiest part of this "trail" was walking briefly against traffic along the Pali Highway before hopping the lava rock wall to descend into the forest trail to Kapena Falls (or as it turns out...Alapena).

Luckily we were only in the dense, barely passable as a trail, wooded area for five to ten minutes when we could hear and glimpse the rapid falls.  Never have I completed an easier hike to be rewarded with such a great waterfall.  In fact there was more than one waterfall.  A few rock hops up from the initial falls there is another level of falls...on this second level, three falls sit side by side.  It was a beautiful sight to see between mosquitoes swarming in front of my eyes.  The things I'll do for a hike!

Remember how I mentioned that every single online report about this destination included some sort of mention about the rampant bugs and instructions to bring bug spray?  Of course I TOTALLY forgot mine.  This has never happened.  I was experiencing serious regret.  I was so desperate for bug spray, I would have traded my iPhone for some DEET.  That's desperation.  These same online sources also said that this is a kid friendly place, but there's not enough mosquito spray in the world to protect my kids from the masses of blood suckers down here. The trail is not technically difficult but the combination of possible Leptospirosis from the water, transfusion level blood loss from mosquitoes,  a few sketchy characters at the edge of the woods, and of course the walking along a busy road...this trail suddenly seemed more dangerous than Pali Puka.

All that being said...I'm really glad that I dragged my hiking partner out for this quick, city waterfall adventure, although...I'm finding it difficult to type this between scratching my arms and legs...

If you decide to park by the cemetery, hop the wall, and wage flesh warfare with the mosquitoes to experience Kapena Falls (really Alapena Falls), enjoy!  It really is an oasis on this bigger oasis we call O'ahu.