Hiking Waimano Pools

Hello all, it's the weekend!

Quick Reference:

-Waimano Pools/Falls hike, valley
-Buried in Ewa Forest Reserve in Waimano Valley
-3 miles round trip
-Home of "Cardiac Hill" (700 ft elevation gain)
-Bring swimming gear!

This has been a hectic summer and it only seems to wind up as time presses forward.

Circumstances granted that my immediate family and I all be reunited for a week and we have been jackknifing all over the island at my brother's behest to visit some old haunts. We hunted down some favorite foods and eateries, lounged beachside and attacked the surf at White Plains (see previous post), along with those things you can't plan for like vehicle troubles. (The day my spare tampon plugged a rotted radiator hose and we went on our merry way.) It was such an event-filled week I struggled to remember which days we did what as I updated my journal.

Anyway, on to today--my brother and I had made plans to go snorkeling up North Shore and snag some Matsumoto's shave ice on the way back Friday. Didn't happen. Saturday we hit the swap meet at the stadium and had a huge family party for my brother. Then Sunday rolled around and my bro decided to do other activities, while my sister insisted we go hiking.

Panoramic of the ridge between two very narrow stretches of grove--almost at the bottom!

She chose Waimano Pools and we both fretted if we had already done this trail. It turns out we hadn't.

After a light lunch, Darcie and I headed to Pearl City and took off E Komo Mai [Welcome] Dr., following the road all the way to the end where the trail head sat. I knew we'd reached it when the tiny residence road was packed with vehicles parked on either side of the street.

A view of the west side from the trail.

Squeezing through the fence at the end of the road, we started down the Manana Trail and up a paved road to a water tank and promptly onto a dirt trail. It had rained a rare thunderstorm the night prior and the way was muddy. I always cringe finding soft trails at the start because the deeper into the valleys you go, the more muddy the trails become. Yes, I started with white shoes on this hike and they ended up caked.

The path split on us a couple times and my sister and I are the types who want to explore every branch, just to see where it goes.

We picked our way through the trees up and down gradual grades until the path narrowed and dropped into the valley. A sign pointed us to "Waimano Falls 1 mi" and my sister and I threaded our way over a large exposed root section. This had to be at least a hundred foot root system. We used the trees lining the trail for stability here on out. There was a few spots I would have tumbled headlong had I not been holding onto a guava tree.

A rocky section met us next with another steep grade we had to carefully negotiate because the rocks were wet and our shoes were muddy. The stream danced in and out of our path as it too wound its way to the stream at bottom.

We crossed a narrow bit of stream maybe midway through the trail and descended more, broke out into an open section of ridge that was breathtaking and plunged back into a very narrow section of grove.

The bit of stream we hopped on our way down.

We spilled out at the bottom at last, hung left at the fork, and followed the path upstream. The trail took us over an unfed split in the stream, back to the main branch and we tracked this all the way until we hit the falls.

Smaller panoramic of the stream winding its course through Waimano Valley.

The 'split' in the path had us cross over the active and inactive sections of the stream. Gorgeous!

The first thing you see is the smaller waterfall with a rope swing strung above it. Behind that is the larger falls which made an impressive sight.

The lower pool of Waimano Falls and the swinging rope. I loved the 'weeping rock' on the right.

I was not planning to swim. I usually do not swim as a precaution against contracting a nasty bacterial infection known as leptospirosis. The bacteria comes from infected animal urine or feces left behind in mud or in runoff and can be a waterborne illness in Hawaii. But when my sister (and a whole host of other people) ducked under the big waterfall, I couldn't help myself. I always ache to swim when I go to any waterfall and today I threw caution to the wind.

And the major fall! I could not resist its charms. The water felt great!

It was a blast.

We both swam beneath the big falls and I marveled at the sheer power behind that drop. We also both slid down to the smaller fall and swung off the big rope into the pool below that. Great fun. We must have hung around the falls for a solid hour before making our way back up "Cardiac Hill." And yes, I did have to stop twice to catch my breath.

But it was a gorgeous day and a welcome release to not only hike but hit the water. Here's hoping I came out as clean as I felt.

Happy Sunday.