Hiking the Puʻu Manamana Trail: Crouching Lion to Kahekili Ridge on Oʻahu
Distance (Full Loop): 5.3 miles / 8.5 km
The Puʻu Manamana Trail in east Oʻahu is one my favorite adventures when I’m looking for a fun, challenging day hike, but not something too long.
That being said, the Puʻu Manamana Trail is not a beginner trail. You need to be comfortable with high-exposure, some climbing, and comfortability with both if the weather turns. For these reasons, I want to emphasize that the distance should not influence your perception about how hard the Puʻu Manamana Loop Trail is.
By this, I mean that the famous Crouching Lion Trail is truly only the easiest part and the start of the much longer hike, known as the Puʻu Manamana Crossover Trail. However, it’s the trail that ascends past Crouching Lion where the real hiking begins.
Puʻu Manamana Trailhead Parking
Parking for the Crouching Lion Trailhead is located in a small dirt lot on the right side of Kamehameha Highway just before Kahana Bay Beach Park when coming from Kāneʻohe or on the left after the beach park when coming from the North Shore.
That being said, consider the Crouching Lion Trailhead to be a high-crime area for petty theft, meaning you should never leave visible bags or anything valuable in your car.
Google Maps Directions: Crouching Lion Trailhead
Hiking the Puʻu Manamana Trail
By hiking this trail, you accept all the risks and potential legal consequences for entering a closed area.
I always like to start this loop on the Crouching Lion side, which is the direction that this post is written. I do this because all of the hardest elevation gain is on the Crouching Lion side, which I like to get out of the way in the beginning.
Once the trail starts to cross over to Kahekili Ridge, the hike is a much nicer descent for the majority of the trail. However, if you wanted to, this hike could just as easily be done in reverse.
The trailhead begins at a series of warning signs on the opposite side of the road heading toward Kāneʻohe.
The first set of signs is the trail for Puʻu Manamana, but if you want to head to the main Crouching Lion viewpoint before continuing on, go to the second set of signs, which is the second photo.
They both connect at the top. Therefore, I took the route up from the second set of signs to the most popular Crouching Lion viewpoint.
Know that the trail is steep and can be muddy and slippery if it has rained recently.
When you get to the flat dirt area in the photo below, you can either go to the left to check out the main Crouching Lion viewpoint or continue on the connector trail to the right.
Crouching Lion-Puʻu Manamana Connector Trail
I chose to continue on to Puʻu Manamana, which is the trail shown below.
Furthermore, this connector trail will continue up to the lion’s head, which is where the Crouching Lion Trail gets its name. However, the lion’s head doesn’t stand out as much from the trail, as it’s much easier to depict from the road down in Kaʻaʻawa.
This cross should serve as a reminder for how easy it can be to take a bad fall here.
After just 0.1 miles (0.2 km), the connector trail meets with the Puʻu Manamana Trail that ascends just behind where this photo was taken.
This is also the trail that began at the first set of trailhead signs.
Hiking Puʻu Manamana (Crouching Lion to Kahekili Loop)
After Crouching Lion, the Puʻu Manamana Trail continues up the ridge for the next 1.4 miles (2.3 km) before making any turns.
That said, the distance on this stretch is deceivingly short because 1.4 miles (2.3 km) to get to the most important turn will take much longer than it may seem.
The photo below is the area where the Puʻu Manamana Trail tops out above the steepest part of the ascent.
Know that much of this section is absolutely a no-fall zone! You can’t make a mistake here, or it would likely be fatal.
To this point, the cliffs on Puʻu Manamana are extremely dramatic, and you’ll get a better appreciation for how dramatic they are on the Kahekili side of the loop when you look back in this direction.
Just because I may have done this hike in a really old pair of running shoes doesn’t mean that’s what I recommend.
In fact, I’ve changed to a pair that I enjoy much more, which is what’s shown below.
The photos below are of the third down-climb.
However, the second photo does a bad job of showing the route down. It’s not straight over the face from the angle that this was taken, but rather off to the side.
On the upper portions of the hike, the Puʻu Manamana Trail becomes a bit more overgrown, which is why I recommend hiking in pants.
The pants below are my recommendations that hold up the best with the overgrowth here in Hawaiʻi, but with any hiking pants that need to be durable, make sure that they are at or near 100% nylon. This is really the most important factor!
Puʻu Manamana Crossover
The photos below show the highest point on the Puʻu Manamana Crossover Trail at just under 2,000 ft. (610 m), and this also represents the end of the Crouching Lion side of the loop.
To get to Kahekili Ridge, take a hard left down the ridge, and know that if you don’t start immediately descending, you made a wrong turn.
Going straight on the ridge from this point is generally of no interest to most people. It’s called True Manamana, and it’s one of the more advanced hikes on this island, which is also saying that this Crouching Lion Loop is nowhere near the same difficulty as True Manamana.
That said, I’ve been over to True Manamana once, and I can confidently say that I won’t be going back.
The next section of the Puʻu Manamana Trail is called the Puʻu Manamana Crossover or Turnover Trail.
Essentially, the trail descends down a different ridge, until it reaches the top of Makaua Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls on Oʻahu.
Hidden Valley
Once you reach the Makaua Stream, you have officially crossed over to the Kahekili side of the loop. It’s also the side that should move much quicker compared to the Crouching Lion ‘half'.
I say 'half' because the Kahekili Ridge side is significantly shorter and quicker than the Crouching Lion side.
From Upper Makaua Falls, the trail over to Kahekili Ridge ascends back out of the gulch until it meets the Kahekili ridge line.
Kahekili Ridge
As previously mentioned, the Kahekili Ridge side of the Puʻu Manamana Loop should move much quicker in comparison, and at this point, you’ll already be much lower from all of the elevation lost from the other side to get down to the stream.
For the rest of Kahekili Ridge down to the most popular stopping point near the Kahekili Pillbox, the Puʻu Manamana Loop simply follows the steep ridge line back down.
Kahekili Pillbox
In my opinion, the Kahekili Pillbox is more or less the same difficulty as the Crouching Lion Trail on the other side.
For this reason, the Kahekili Pillbox, as a stand-alone hike, is a popular stopping point, making it one of the best uncrowded sunrise hikes on Oʻahu.
After the pillbox, the Kahekili Ridge Trail descends steeply, dropping about 400 ft. (122 m) into the Makaua Gulch, where the Kahekili Trailhead will be found shortly after.
Kahekili Ridge-Makaua Falls Junction
At the junction with Makaua Falls, go right to find the trailhead, located shortly ahead.
The trail to the left heads upstream to Makaua Falls, and that’s really a hike for a different day, especially because the rain-fed waterfall is not guaranteed to be flowing at all times of the year.
Unfortunately, one of the least enjoyable aspects of the Puʻu Manamana Loop is the 0.9-mile (1.4 km) walk or run back to your car at the Crouching Lion Trailhead.
Alternatively, taking the bus can be a good option, but if wait times are long, it's likely not worth it.
Native Plants on the Puʻu Manamana Trail
The Puʻu Manamana Turnover Trail is one of the best trails for seeing a variety of native Hawaiian plants across the entire hike.
From the lower elevations to the Crouching Lion area, you can find Lau Hala, ʻUhaloa, ʻŌhiʻa lehua, Hau, and ʻIlima, to name a few.
Once on the upper ridge, the trail transitions into a mixed Lama forest with other plants like Maua, multiple species of Kōlea, ʻĀkia, ʻŪlei, and ʻAlaʻala wai nui. Lama trees are also one of the most easily identifiable, extending from this point all the way down Kahekili Ridge.
In my opinion, the turnover trail or crossover to Kahekili Ridge was my favorite part for finding native plants, which includes Kōpiko, ʻAhakea, ʻAkolea, and Māmaki, to name only a few more.
That being said, if you are curious about trying the native Hawaiian Māmaki tea, I kindly ask that you don’t harvest Māmaki from our native forests but, instead, buy from one of the local reputable vendors, such as those listed below.
If you would like to know more about these and tons of other native Hawaiian plants from across the islands, I encourage you to check out my separate post linked below.
Read My Separate Post: Native Hawaiian Plant Guide
