Hiking the Waʻahila Ridge Trail to Mt. Olympus (ʻAwaʻawaloa) on Oʻahu
Distance: 5.9 miles / 9.5 km
For a number of reasons, the Waʻahila Ridge Trail is one of the best hikes near Waikīkī.
The first is that it's very well-trafficked trail, so the overgrowth is much better compared to other ridge hikes. But perhaps more importantly, from the summit, you can get amazing views of Kaʻau Crater to the east, which is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the crater without doing the longer Kaʻau Crater Loop.
Waʻahila Ridge Trailhead Parking
Parking for the Waʻahila Ridge Trail is located in a large paved parking lot at the top of St. Louis Heights in the Waʻahila Ridge State Recreation Area.
Out of caution, consider this parking lot to be a high crime area for petty theft/ break-ins. Never leave valuables or bags visible in your car.
Google Maps Directions: Waʻahila Ridge State Recreation Area
Hiking the Waʻahila Ridge Trail
One of the best things about Waʻahila Ridge is that there is much more shade on this hike over other neighboring trails, like Mauʻumae Ridge (Puʻu Lanipō).
When you see this trail marker in the photo below, turn left to continue on the best path.
The descent in the photo above is the largest elevation drop on the hike before continuing further up the ridge. Be careful here because some of the drops are a little steep. However, there are a number of easy ways to work around them.
At the split in the photo below, go right. The path to the left isn’t more direct, but rather, it’s more overgrown until you eventually end back up on the same trail as if you had gone to the right.
Kolowalu Junction
Go right at the Kolowalu junction to stay on Waʻahila Ridge.
Kolowalu is more or less a connector trail to the Puʻu Pia Trail at the bottom of Mānoa Valley.
For most hikers, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to take Kolowalu unless you planned some kind of loop hike, such as Mānoa Middle to Waʻahila Ridge.
The flat grassy area in the photos below is the largest open area like this on Waʻahila Ridge. After this point, the trail becomes slightly more overgrown because many people turn around here before making it to the summit.
Additionally, from this point on, you may want to consider convertible hiking pants for the muddier sections toward the summit.
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!
The erosion heading up to the summit is quite bad on Waʻahila, and I ask that you try to do your part to minimize your impact.
The flat spot in the photo below is not the summit of Mt. Olympus.
To get to Mt. Olympus (ʻAwaʻawaloa), you need to follow the KST for a very short section over to the true summit of ʻAwaʻawaloa.
Mt. Olympus (ʻAwaʻawaloa)
Just past the summit of Mt. Olympus, I like to sit in the open area and enjoy the views of the neighboring Kaʻau Crater.
The Koʻolau Summit Trail (KST)
Don’t hike on the KST to Kaʻau Crater unless you know what you’re getting into.
The decent off of Mt. Olympus is very steep and exposed, and after this steep drop down a few hundred feet, the overgrowth picks up significantly until you reach the west rim of the crater.
What I’m really saying is that the hike over to Kaʻau Crater is more challenging than it appears in the photo below.
Native Plants on Waʻahila Ridge
Within the first mile of Waʻahila Ridge, look out for the native ʻIlima flower growing on the side of the trail, but like so many other Hawaiʻi hikes, the lower elevations of Waʻahila Ridge are dominated by non-native/ invasive species like Cook pine, Strawberrry guava, Christmas berry, etc.
However, once you get into the upper elevations of Waʻahila, there are countless native plants to look out for like ʻĀkia, Alani, Kāwaʻu, Kōlea, and obviously the stapes, like ʻŌhiʻa, Koa, and Uluhe.
If you’d like to know more about identifying these and other native Hawaiian plants, check out my long running list of native in the post below.
Read My Separate Post: Native Hawaiian Plant Guide
