Halawa Ridge to Haiku Hidden Stairway (aka Stairway to Hell) – August 2012

Neither Halawa Ridge nor the Haiku Hidden Stairway have been on my radar for “hikes to do in the near future,” but when Joshua Serrano (808 Goonies) sends out a hike invite, it usually is worth attending. After we hiked the contouring trail up Halawa Ridge, we headed north on the Koolau Summit Trail to intersect the Hidden Stairway. Since the stairs are only accessible from the top down (unlike it’s neighbor across the valley, “Stairway to Heaven” which is more commonly accessed from the bottom), the stairway on the northern portion of Haiku Valley has been fittingly named, “Stairway to Hell.” From there we followed the stairs down an unnamed ridge that divides Haiku Valley and Iolekaa Valley, which ends abruptly 2/3rds down the ridgeline. Joined by Chenay Borja, Jeremy Kreis, Katie Ersbak, Francis Jimenez, Nodda Peddofyle and a couple other new hiking acquaintances, we completed the 15 mile trek in ~12 hours.

The trail began at the end of Iwaena Street, past the industrial area in Halawa Valley.

Following a faint trail, we passed under H-3 Freeway and followed steep switchbacks to get on top of the ridge.

We then intersected a dirt road, which several hunters apparently have 4WD access to park.

Great scenic views were virtually absent up until this point, as well as when when we slowly ascended up the contour trail.

Later, we were able to see the old radar tower at the top of Haiku Stairs. I was surprised how far away we were from it, as we were right next to the H-3 tunnel (on our left)… recalling that H-3 also passes just over the trailhead for the stairway.

I was able to get a much better perspective of how the freeway curves once we reached the Koolau Summit, just over the windward exit of the H-3 tunnel.

After a short break at the Halawa Ridge terminus, we turned left (northwest) on the Koolau Summit Trail,

…gaining more elevated and epic views of Kaneohe as we approached remnants of the stairway.

While some of the cables and staked fence posts supported our weight,

…others were severely deteriorated and safety hazard, let alone to our health.

Once reaching to the actual “Stairway to Hell (down the unnamed ridge shown in the first photo),” I was somewhat surprised to rusted out much of the railings and steps were.

Though the rust was less prevalent further down, the railings had definitely lost my confidence when one of them fell off when I touched it. Seriously, I didn’t even put that much weight on it… which lead me to believe that the nuts which hold these rails to the track are occasionally non-existent. Cray-cray.

After hiking a considerable distance down the stairs, I was convinced that the views would not change very much from which we saw at the summit, and hiked back up. Some of the others were determined to descend further to reach the end of the stairs, which I believe is approximately 2/3 down the ridge. But Jeremy and Nodda can confirm this further.

Hiking out of Halawa Ridge was awful, and though downhill, seemed twice as long as when we came in. At least we were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we got off the ridge, reaching our cars just before it got dark.

For more adventures of the Lost Trailblazers, either look at my other blogposts and “Adventures with the Lost Trailblazers” photo gallery. Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting and come back again soon!

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