The Road to Likeke Falls

The Pali Highway connects downtown Honolulu with the Windward side of the island.  It's a very pretty road that travels through residential neighborhoods, forest, and the Ko'olau range.  The current Pali Highway is actually the third road built here connecting the two sides of the island.  The hike we took on this day took us on all three of the Pali roads.

Guava! (too bad you can't see it)

From the current Pali Highway we started at the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout which is hang-on-to-your-hat windy.  It offers pretty views of the Windward coast, but it's not the amazing "must-do" that travel books would have you believe.

From here we hopped down to the "Old Pali Road", which was in use from 1898 until the current highway opened in 1959.  This road went around the mountain range rather than through it.  Walking down the hill we parallel the current highway and the old road is very overgrown.  It's hard to imagine where the cars traveled or how it might have been a two-lane road.  Now it's overgrown with guava trees, which we enjoyed immensely.  Free snacks!  (Apologies for the poor photography.  We forgot our camera and had to rely on the cell phone.)

Then we had to cross under the current Pali Highway, so with cars whizzing by literally overhead we found a short ladder to aid our way.  We continued on a dirt path until we approached another abandoned road, Auloa-Ki'ona'ole Road, closed in 1994 due to illegal activities.  Now it's popular with runners and walkers.  Standing at the intersection of trail and road we heard someone call out to us; it was one of A's colleagues out for a long run.  He helped us find the next part of our journey which was some stairs built into a hill and hidden by brush and concrete.  He definitely looked skeptical as we bid adieu and headed into the trees.

We set off on a slippery uphill climb on red clay, crossed a ridge, and then went down onto the original Pali road, a horse trail made of (very slippery) cobblestones.  It's kind of hard to see them in this picture, but the ground is definitely a deliberate stone road.














One more left and we started to hear the sound of running water.

Found 'em! Likeke Falls ~30 ft.

A took his shoes off and waded around in the cold water for a few minutes.  We shared some nuts and enjoyed the quiet at Likeke Falls as well as a Windward view across from the falls.  We then continued on the path for about twenty minutes before learning that it was many miles until it actually got anywhere, at which point we'd be quite far from the car.  We went back to the horse trail and made a loop back to the abandoned road, which was then an uphill climb back up to the Lookout.  And more guava!