Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Waiʻanae Range, while the shoreline is wild and windswept. You can hike or mountain
bike about 2.5 miles to the point, then double-back to where you started. Parking at this
trailhead is notoriously risky, however.
It's usually safer to leave your car on the state park's southern side and hike in from
the Waiʻanae Coast trailhead instead (
Click here
)
. To get there, backtrack east and drive
south through central Oʻahu then north up the Waiʻanae Coast, a 50-mile trip that takes
well over an hour.
Sleeping
Camp Mokuleʻia
CAMPGROUND $
(
637-6241;
www.campmokuleia.com
; 68-729 Farrington Hwy; campsites per person $18; of-
fice 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat)
Looking for solitude? Near Dillingham Airfield,
this church-owned retreat is open to the public (with advance reservations) if another
group hasn't prebooked. In a partially shaded ironwood grove facing the ocean, camp-
ground facilities are ultra basic, with outdoor showers and composting toilets. Skip the
well-worn lodge rooms, cabins and beach house. No alcohol, drugs or smoking.
CENTRAL OʻAHU
Central Oʻahu is the island's forgotten backwater. Squeezed by enormous military bases,
don't be surprised if you get passed on the highway by camo-painted Humvees or Black
Hawk choppers buzzing overhead. A few highways head north to Wahiawa, the region's
central town: the H-2 Fwy is the fastest option, while Kunia Rd (Hwy 750), the furthest
west, is the most scenic. Moving onward from Wahiawa, rural Kaukonahua Rd (Hwy
803) and the busy Kamehameha Hwy (Hwy 99) lead through pineapple country to the
North Shore.
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
KOLEKOLE PASS
At 1724ft, Kolekole Pass occupies the biggest gap in the Waiʻanae Range. Film buffs
may recognize the landscape, as this is where WWII Japanese fighter planes ap-
peared to fly through on their way to bomb Pearl Harbor in the classic war movie
Tora! Tora! Tora!(1970). In reality, the planes flew along the inside of the mountain
range, not through it.
