Kamana Nui
The trail starts with a walk down the historic Damon estate carriage road. Fern leaves were wrapped around the gate where the road starts.
The road surface is concrete in some areas, cobblestone in others.
A side trail, with an informational plaque, leads to the site of the Damon summer house. You can see the fireplace, staircases, and even the bathroom shower, with most of its tiles intact, all being overtaken by the forest.
The road crosses Moanalua Stream many times, over arched stone bridges.
Yellow ginger along the roadside gave the air a sweet fragrance.
After a few miles, we turned off the carriage road onto the Kulana’ahane trail, a recent addition to the State of Hawaii’s Na Ala Hele trail system. We ducked through a massive tangle of hau trees.
The trail follows the stream towards the back of Moanalua Valley.
Chinese ground orchids
A ‘starfish’ stinkhorn fungus
Awapuhi everywhere
This pool was a sacred bathing spot for the Hawaiians.
Nearing the back of the valley, the trail begins to climb a small ridge towards the saddle.
It got steeper and muddier, but what a view of Moanalua valley!
A huge waterfall, mostly dry, cutting down from Tripler ridge.
All of a sudden, you reach the end of the trail and are greeted with views of the Windward side of the island.
This point overlooks Haiku Valley, with the H-3 freeway snaking through it.
If you follow the ridge up, you can see the radar station that marks the top of the Stairway to Heaven.
Our hike today coincided with the air show at the Marine Corps Base. We were all a bit worried to see this huge explosion and cloud of black smoke, however, we later learned that it was just one of their regular stunts.
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