Ka’au Crater Loop…
Another fun hike on Oahu. Again, finding a legal place to park was the crux of the day…especially with a rented camper van. We started early and found a spot on this narrow windy road close to the trailhead.
The trail starts out in this lush jungle of vegetation along the Wai’oma’o Stream. To us mainlanders, the vegetation looked like giant house plants… Soon we crossed the creek and scaled a steep canyon wall to the rim of the Ka’au Crater. Wow!! The trail continues along the rim of the crater up to the summit of Palikea Peak which is also along the Ko’olau Ridge, same ridge that spans Oahu from north to south. As soon as we got to the top the fog blew in and forced us to continue around the crater rim, descending south to a ridge that led us back to the trail we started from.
Fun hike with beautiful scenery. A great way to get away from all the people…
The trail starts out in this jungle of “house plants” 🙂
A lot of the trail up the stream follows this irrigation pipe, until now where it looks like it goes into the side of the hill…
A couple of down climbs aided with a rope. Didn’t put much weight on it, mainly for balance. Rock was slippery…
Looking over at the other side of the canyon, at the slope we need to go up to gain the rim of the crater.
Looking at today’s objective…Palikea Peak.
At the southern edge of the Ka’au Crater…
Looking down in the crater from high on the rim…
Trail is heavily eroded…
As soon as we hit the Ko’olau Ridge, the fog moved in…
…and Deb’s micro spikes blew out…which we repaired with a couple of zip-ties.
From Ko’olau Ridge, looking down on Waikiki, and downtown Honolulu. So many people down there, and only us up here 🙂
Starting our descent down the crater rim…
Last view of the Ka’au Crater before descending a ridge back to the main trail.
Today’s route…
