Laie Falls

Laie Fall is a serene hike. Located past the entrance to the Morman Temple on Poohaili Street, the three hour trek ends at a 15 foot waterfall and swim pool. Beimes, Justin, and I parked our cars along the football field and continued through a yellow gate along a gravel road. Although there were “No Trespassing” and “Permit Required” signs no one seemed to mind or bother. However, one house to the right had an array of posts or should I say threats. A couple of them, as I recall, stated “One way in, No way out”  and “If your not blood you will bleed.” (Yes, the signs contained misspelling in case you’RE wondering.) Although curious as to what would make someone so angry we hurried along joking about what might happen if we ventured down the road. In about ten minutes we were at the trailhead. The initial sign gave a rather descriptive illustration of the hike. We knew there would be some “Scrambling Hills” followed by a “Pine Forest” before reaching the falls about 1 hour and 30 minutes later. Although we wanted to go to the summit we did not have time for a six hour hike.

Thank goodness the trail had a steady incline. I really wasn’t in the mood to walk up and down, and up and down. We strolled along a wide dirt path and came across a junction. We opted to go straight which proved correct. Following were the scrambling hills which didn’t require much scrambling but the lack of shade started to get to us. Fortunately we reached the forest of pine proceeded by a tunnel of strawberry guava trees. At first it was pretty cool but it got old real fast. You can only stare at strawberry guavas for so long. At the same time I didn’t complain because I was happy to be in the shade. 

A while later we emerged from the tunnel and took the critical junction, turning right, to the falls. The path to the falls was wet, a bit muddy, and very slippery. I held onto the rope and trees just in case. We took our time descending and reached the falls in an hour and twenty minutes. The water was flowing but not gushing as we had seen in pictures posted on the internet. I can just imagine how beautiful the waterfall must be when it is. After checking out the falls and taking some pictures, Beimes and I went in for a swim still keeping to my promise. We swam around for a bit and tried to see if we could ascend any of the walls but to no avail. There wasn’t much to do in the pond, no place to jump from and no rope to swing on, so we didn’t stay in very long. Not surprising was the coldness of the water. Surprising was the stiller we were the warmer we felt.  

On our way out we opted for side trails which all met up with the original path. I was pleased that the descent was downhill.  For the most part I enjoyed Laie Falls. The terrain was a nice change from all of our recent Kaneohe hikes and the refreshing swim at the waterfall beats any day at work.