Palolo Valley

PALOLO'S HUI






























Sacred Blossom

SO much yellow ginger


We tagged some trees today
These long pipes are thru out the trail and some actually have running water in them
The gals wrapped their own prayer rocks

The hui heading back





This is the entrance and EXIT



Early on this past week I completed the Aiea Loop trail which only upset my camera girl who is also my daughter Malila to pesk me and pesk me until I finally gave in to this beautiful hike Ive been wanting to do for over a year now. So we hui'd up and set out to Palolo. Its really simple to find at the very back of the valley on
10th Ave then right on Waiomao straight to the back. You must find parking and will have to turn around and park somewhere along side this narrow road. Be sure to not block driveways and pay attention to the parking signs here as they are rather noticable as if to really REALLY WARN you that ignoring them will be punishable. At the dead end there is a sign which is posted KAPU Private Property. Pay no attention to this sign as it is probabley posted by the local homeowners who just like to lay claims to the entire land area back there. It is a legal state trail and legally they have no claims to the openning. It is very visable after a clearing of mailboxes to the left of the dead end.

Because of our weather conditions it was very very wet on the trail which made it difficult at times to get down to certain areas were proper footing was made availiable to us. Also as we got deeper ( about 3 miles in ) we noticed the ground below us slowly vanishing and at times would find our trail to be a one foot span with nothing to grab onto but the grass that grew of the cliff above us. It felt like a pigbath most of the way with swishy soggy shoes and it was no surprise when Marrissa screamed "PIG" after she crossed a river bed and notice a wild boar looking straight at her. We were all laughing because she switched into turbo mode straight up hill. And of course the pig being frightened by all of our noise ran the other way, thank god.

We reached the first waterfall and to be honest with you any one with common sense would not need tags or ribbons to figure out how to get to the 1st because its obvious to just follow the riverbed upstream. So the Hui hung out there for a while swimming and taking some really nice pictures. The waterfall is I will admit one of the most beautiful on THIS ISLAND that Ive seen. We continued on climbing up an even narrow and steeper trail to get the second waterfall which only compliments the first. However this part of the hike is not meant for novice hikers and hopefully if this is the first hiking adventure youve ever been on , your smart enough to just take your time and watch where you step as at some points there is absolutely no trail under you. You will find yourself completely locking your body to the wall of the cliff to hold on for dear life. I should know that and so would our other HUI members today as each of us had our fair share of sliding down far distances or loosing footing in many areas. Thanks to all the gals yelling "DIP" thru out our adventure we made it thru safely and smiling at the end of the day.

There is many Passion Fruit Lilikoi on this trail which I will be returning for with my hubby and friends sometime soon to make homemade juice and lilikoi creme flavoring for desserts. My hubby is not much of a trailer but if there is a patch of something he likes , he wont hesitate.

There is also many rocks left by privious hikers wrapped in tea leaf which being Hawaiian we know it mean "Kapu" and even if the person who wrapped it is not Hawaiian, you still have the respect not to touch what others leave behind as a monument or an offering. Yup, tell that to Malila. But its just out of respect we do not KAPU. There are many junction boxes and there is also many large water pipes thru out the trail. The ropes are very stable and really without them you wont move foward. Thank You to previous people who have installed these all the way back. We were able to ribbon our path today with fresh tags as I will attempt to redo this trail with some friends early on next year.

All in all what a beautiful hike and waterfalls for days ... Five Stars for Palolo !