Honopu Trail

Coastline view of Na Pali from end of Honopu trail

This past Sunday I hiked the Honopu Trail - it's a rather obscure trail, not officially signed, hard to find and hard to navigate, but with help from a guidebook I managed it just fine. And I had the trail all to myself -- I saw nobody else on the trail and it's definitely out-and-back trail so I would have run into anyone else out there. Great to have it to myself, but not so great if there had been trouble. I was solo but from the low traffic - on a Sunday (locals are more likely to hike weekends) - I would advise for this one not to go it alone for safety. Honopu is the valley immediately to the west of Kalalau.

The trail is fairly challenging, definitely not for novice hikers: there are some confusing intersections - when in doubt go in the direction of the ocean, it's narrow in sections, some slipper steep parts - not advisable after wet weather, and out by the ridges the ground is crumbly and you have to be careful. Long pants are advisable as you tromp through quite a bit of scratchy fern on narrow trails.

 Panoramas give you the best idea what this views are like out there.

View to the west, upper trail

View to the west, near end of trail

View to the east, near end of trail

Trail head as seen from the road

The trail head is a turnout about 1/2 mile past the 17 mile marker on the Koke'e state road, just past a prominent dip down into a low spot just past the (signed) Awaawapuhi trailhead parking area, on the makai (ocean side, or on the left driving out the road from the Koke'e Lodge). If you come to the (first) Kalalau Lookout you have gone too far. The turn out is about three cars wide and goes about fifty feet back off the road. The trail begins in the back of that area on the left side (back to the road) and proceeds, with quite a lot of winding around, generally toward to the ocean at 90 degrees to the road.

Honopu beach from the ridge 2500 feet above

As with the Nualolo and the Awaawapuhi trails that also lead out to ridges that overlook these Na Pali ("the cliffs") vallies, the first section climbs a bit and then descends through Koke'e forest, through some sunny meadows overgrown with fern, and then down into the more arid sections out to the ridge leading to the bluffs overlooking the valley. The trail is quite narrow in places, there are obstacles to crawl under or over or go around, and it can be slippery - both mud-slippery and crumbly-slippery.

View of the ridge portion of Honopu Trail

I was concerned that wet weather would blow in and mist obscure the Honopu valley on the right going out, but it was basically clear throughout. (A misty rain began to fall just as I got back to the car, developing into quite a rainfall as I descended through and out of Koke'e.) Use good judgement as to how far out the ridge you want to go - there is no "end of trail" marker out there - and it gets increasingly challenging. No sheer cliffs here but the slopes are steep and gust of wind can appear quite suddenly so take it easy - I don't think the view gets particularly better beyond a certain point which is easy and safe to get out to.

This hike is a little shorter and easier than either of the Nualolo and the Awaawapuhi trails - at expense of being a little tricky to find and navigate - and gives you the great views of the coastline and cliffs. For all these trails I suggest waiting a couple days after rainy Koke'e weather (although Koke'e probably gets a little precipitation daily, just avoid the significant rains) for easy trail conditions.

Looking for this trail I found an abandoned underground room of some kind right at the bottom of that dip in the road, ocean side. Shades of "LOST" it is quite surprising but I expect it's just filled with old junk, perhaps a remnant from WWII or something.

There were a lot of helicopters out there - the noise is really a shame given the wonderful quiet that usually prevails out there. Eating lunch out on the ridge I notice what sounded like a waterfall that have been "turned on" about the time a helicopter was buzzing the Awaawapuhi valley to the west. It was a small rock slide I finally realized, and I couldn't exactly place it but I wondered if the helicopter downdraft could have precipitated it. Often I've seen them flying fairly low - and it seems they certainly could trigger a rock slide: please leave a comment if you know if it could or not.