La'ie Falls Hike

We learned about La'ie Falls from our Oahu hike book and wanted to see them for the last three years.  Finally last summer we took A's coworker to hike to the 15ft waterfall and swimming hole.

The hike starts behind the Mormon Temple on the Windward side of the island.  The "official" parking for the trail was across from someone's private property where a sign in big letters promised to shoot trespassers and coconut thieves - oh boy, we thought, this is going to be a fun hike.  In reality, the trail itself was clean and clearly marked with pink ribbons. Along the way we saw great views:

a lot of strawberry guava:

white and purple wild orchids:

After about 3 hours we came to a point where the trail forks: either straight to the summit or down toward our destination - falls and the waterhole. 

After another 15 minutes we finally reached the falls.  The first waterfall we saw made us think that we got lost since it was so small and there was no waterhole.

Eventually we realized that the actual waterfall was above where we were standing.

We finished our trip with a stop at La'ie Point, made famous by the hole in a rock caused by the deadly April 1, 1946 tsunami.