Lua’alaea Falls – August 27, 2011

This is it, the last remaining waterfall in Manoa Valley I have yet to witness. I thought this hike could have been done 3 months ago, but as my favorite saying goes, satisfaction comes to people who are patient. If you look at the topo map, Manoa has 5 distinct streams, Aihualama, Wai'hi, Lua’alaea, Naniuapo, and Waiakeakua stream. Naniuapo stream branches off Waiakeakua, so I thought a waterfall wouldn’t run off that stream, but it does. In addition, there is not too much information on Naniuapo falls. I actually thought it was Lua’alaea when I discovered it 1 year ago.

I already found 4 out of the 5 waterfalls in Manoa. However, finding Lua’alaea falls has now become a challenge. I know it seemed not too difficult to find, but all the directions on the internet weren't good enough. These are the two hints that exist. 1) It branches off the Manoa falls trail 2) It is on Haukulu Road. I’ve tried both options many times and came up empty.

On the HTMC schedule this time was Lua’alaea falls. Since this would be the end of the Waterfalls in Manoa chapter, I wanted to bring my kids to enjoy this moment with me. Malia had Tahitian practice, so I only took Jared. We met the group on Manoa Road right before it turns into one lane. We had a briefing from Ralph the coordinator, crossed the bridge, and walked towards the Manoa Falls trailhead. After about 50 feet, we veered right towards a path. It looked undefined, however after about 20 yards it opened up. It was muddy. As Ralph put it, “Manoa sucking mud”. The mud was shin deep in some places. We hiked until we hit a side trail going up the mountain. The mountain was semi steep; I thought Jared would have difficulties. To my surprise, he climbed the mountain pretty well. It was slippery, so holding on to the roots and branches was crucial while going up the mountain. Jared looked like spider-man.

We walked through the muddy Manoa valley crossing Lua’alaea stream many times until we had to scramble through rocks and tree trunks. Jared and I were in the back the entire time as hiker’s made their way to the falls. There were narrow spots on the trail with at least 15 foot drops. Not too bad, but a fall would cause an injury. I carried Jared through the narrow spots until we reached lower Lua’alaea falls. The lower falls are pretty. We took an additional 10 minutes of scrambling through branches and tree trunks before we reached upper Lua’alaea falls and its thin strips of flowing water. Not as pretty as the lower falls.

I was happy because I knew that the conquest of the Waterfalls of Manoa had been completed. Over 2 years in the making and finally I can claim victory. Jared and I took a break near the falls by Will and his wife. Jared commanded attention as he fell in the shallow pool and started to freak out. I grabbed him out of the pool and told him to sit on a rock and relax. But he has a really thick skull, ignored my directives, and decided to run back into the shallow pool to regain the attention from all the nearby hiker’s. After about 10 minutes, we headed back.

Since we were in the back, I took a nice picture of Lua’alaea falls with no hiker in the picture. I plan to go again during a downpour so I can catch its full effect. Going back, Ralph decided to tag along with us. He helped Jared over the narrow sections and stream crossings. I talked with him about many things, but his focus was on Jared. Ralph has an older son and I think hiking with Jared reminded him of his own son when he was young. I took a nice picture of them retrieving a mountain apple.

Jared had a good time hiking with him. We headed back to our cars and said our goodbyes. It was another great day of Hiking on Oahu. And to close this chapter – Lua’alaea has been completed. Put a check next to that one.