Hiking the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail on Oʻahu’s North Shore
Distance: 1.2 miles / 1.9 km
Located on the North Shore of Oʻahu, the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail is a local and visitor favorite, and it’s one of my personal favorite sunset hikes on all sides of the island.
To this point, late evening is the only time of day that I like to hike to the ʻEhukai Pillbox, as the trail is one of the best efforts-to-reward sunset hikes, being that it’s so short!
ʻEhukai Pillbox Trailhead Parking
Parking for the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail is located in the Sunset Beach Neighborhood Park parking lot or across the street at ʻEhukai Beach Park.
Do not park in the Sunset Elementary School parking lot that’s located just past the public parking shown below.
Google Maps Directions: Sunset Beach Neighborhood Park / ʻEhukai Beach Park
Hiking the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail
The ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail begins on the opposite side of the parking lot shown above, which should be marked with a big sign for the trail.
Initially, the hike starts out on a relatively flat trail through the trees, but if it has rained recently, as you can see in these photos below, the lower sections of the trail can be very muddy!
After 0.1 miles (0.2 km), the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail will begin ascending the one and only hill on the entire hike, covering about 300 ft. (91 m) of elevation gain.
For this reason, I still feel that the trail is a fairly mild hike, being that this one hill is the only challenging section.
At the top of the hill, the ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail should no longer be as muddy as it was in the beginning.
Then, the remaining hike gets flatter and easier all the way to the first of two pillboxes atop Pūpūkea.
First ʻEhukai Pillbox
The photo below is the first of two bunkers, neither one being more or less popular than the other.
Personally, I like the second pillbox better, and, as mentioned previously, either bunker can be one of the best places to watch the sunset on Oʻahu!
Hiking to the Second Pillbox
To get to the second pillbox, continue hiking along the same trail past the first.
Furthermore, the trail to the second ʻEhukai Pillbox will be almost entirely downhill for about 0.1 miles (0.2 km).
Second ʻEhukai Pillbox (Peace Sign Pillbox)
The second ʻEhukai Pillbox is the end of the trail.
From the top, you can see as far as Kaʻena Point to the left and and the northern most stretches of Oʻahu to the right.
All said, I don’t recommend exploring any other trail off of the main ʻEhukai Pillbox Trail because they are not well-marked, and it can be very easy to get lost.
Hiking Down
On the hike back down, don’t forget to turn right when you come to this split in order to descend the big hill mentioned previously.
