12.09.2012
Lulumahu Waterfall is a beautiful hike that rests on Board of Water Supply land. The original forest paths and directions were accurate as of December 2012. However it has been brought to my attention that the trails running parallel to the stream/river are blocked with debris and fallen trees. Fierce storms are a reality in Hawaii and I do not have the time to rehike all of the trails in this blog and retype all of my directions. (Believe or not, I have a day job.) Therefore, all directions have been removed to prevent any hikers from getting lost. If you wish to be put on a waiting list to hike to this waterfall with me then please comment below. I rather just take a few people a month to the waterfall in order to minimize the risk of folks becoming disoriented or lost. Hikers getting lost would be absolutely horrible to me.
Please do not go inside the palace or stand on top of the structure. It is falling apart and lets all be honest…you are not that light. Any amount of weight bearing down on the walls can tear it apart. Lets leave this part of history intact for future generations. Do not touch the palace.
Yes, that is the trail. You may wish to bring loppers to clear a path into the bamboo. Otherwise you could get lost for a couple of days.
I kept on wondering if this was the day that I was going to die. It was quite spooky in the back of this forest.
Just keep walking for about a mile.
I was relieved when I saw the ending of this bamboo forest trail. I highly suggest bringing loppers since the ribbons might be removed.
Lulumahu Waterfall
Please keep the trail clean. The Board of Water Supply workers do not hike all the way to the back of the forest. They work near the Nuuanu Reservior. Pack out what you pack in.
I have glossed over landownership. To read more specific details please view http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/chair/meetings/submittals/20061208/fw/C%20-%20Forestry%20and%20Wildlife%20-%20Submittals%20C4.pdf
Here in Australia the government has laws prohibiting entry into catchment areas for our water supplies. The reason is to prevent harmful contamination of the reservoirs and from bringing disease to our communities. This is for our own safety. Yes, the areas are beautiful and it is a good thing that they’ll be preserved in their natural state. Your photos are beautiful too, I enjoy your posts very much, thanks.
Hawaii and the American states might be different from Australia. Our government also says that we cannot access certain trails because they are near water supply catchment areas. The difference is that here in Hawaii our water catchment supplies goes through a water processing facility for further purification. So even if I was to pee in the water catchment and have hepititis that water would still be purified in our water facility and all harmful contaminates would be removed. (I do not pee or swim in the area, nor do I have hep, this is just an example) The state of Hawaii Board of Water Supply restricts access because our government likes to restrict people’s freedom. It has nothing to do with water purification.
Our water facilities are quite advance in the United States. Harmful diseases such as hepititis, cholera and leptospirosis is not passed onto the consumers because the water that sits in the catchment areas always goes through a water facility for further purification.
There are a few areas on Kauai, Molokai and the Big Island of Hawaii where there is no water treatment facility and they do in fact drink the ground water. Those are obvious areas and nobody swims in those areas. However, the island of Oahu is a different story.
It’s good to hear that. Maybe I’ll get over there someday – when I was a teenager everyone’s dream was to go to Hawaii.
Reblogged this on bearspawprint.
Hi
I’m looking for a quality website such as oahuhiking.wordpress.com to place some advertising on your site. You will be pay to display advertising.
Let me know if this is of interest and we can hopefully come to some agreement.
Kind Regards,
Wayne
Please view my Sponsorship Page. http://oahuhiking.wordpress.com/sponsorship/
I appreciate this info on the trail. I’ll keep in mind what you said.
Thank you for liking our post, “Twitter/Earthsights: Gorgeous Split-View Waterfall…”. We wish you much success with your blog. – TeamBig10
This was a great description of how to get there until the end of your post. You definitely should have let people know that once they get out of that second (or first if going the short way) ditch they will reach a man made dam and from there you will cross the river 7-8 times and hike at least another 30 minutes before you actually get to the falls. Your blog was wonderfully descriptive but once we got to the dam and couldn’t clearly see the trail upstream we didn’t know where to go. Luckily we saw another hiker who exainws we had to cross the river.
I wrote this particular blog post last year and I hiked to this waterfall about 5 times. There are 2 trails that run parallel to the second dam. I didn’t cross the stream. I just either stayed on one trail or the other trail. There are also trails running down from the mountain that lead to the waterfall trail on the right of the stream. (So readers please don’t climb up that trail because it is very steep and you will probably get in trouble.)
I’m wondering if you had downed trees in your way? Which forced you to cross the stream 7 to 8 times in order to complete the trail? This is something I need to note or I should hike Lulumahu again to make note of the down trees.