After spending a few weeks in Kauai there was one must do for me while i was in Hawaii. I’d seen it quite a few times on instagram and facebook and with word there was a possibilty it would be getting pulled down in the near future i knew i wanted to do it. The “Haiku stairs” or more popularly known as the “Stairway to Heaven” was located on Oahu and would also be where i needed to fly back to Australia from, so it made sense to spend a couple of days on the main island and try complete it. More on the stairs below.

We landed on Oahu mid morning and had organised to hire a jeep from Avis. From the outset landing on Oahu it was very obvious the amount of tourists that there would be on this Island.

We travelled up the west coast of Oahu, stopping in for lunch at a nice locally owned cafe.

It was apparent why Oahu was popular. The beaches where really nice and the scenery was amazing. Sadly this place was so busy and full of tourists it will most likely turn me off ever returning.

We kept heading north making our way all the way up to Kualoa Ranch, stopping in for a breif visit before heading back down to Waikiki to book into the Pagoda hotel. Think it was just below $200 a night for a two bedroom.

That afternoon we headed down to Waikiki beach to see what all the fuss was about. The place was absolutely packed and finding somewhere to eat without a massive wait time was difficult. In saying that, if you removed all the tourists off Waikiki beach it would be one hell of a incredible spot.

The next day we would set out to complete the reason i wanted to come to Oahu.

The stairway to heaven is a set of 3,922 stairs following a ridgeline up to a radio tower that originally built in 1942 by the U.S. Navy as a top-secret facility for transmitting radio signals to ships that were sailing in the Pacific Ocean. They where open until 1987, when they where closed due to being deemed to unsafe for the general public. The stairs where partially renovated and looked like they could possibly reopen in 2002 but complaints from locals and safety concerns soon put a halt to this.

Now there is two ways that you can complete this hike.

Illegally - Up the Haiku Stars avoiding cops and security guards.
Legally - This is the way we did it. It involves going up the back way along the Moanalua Trail. It is a TOUGH hike. It is muddy. It is slippery. And it is a little dangerous.

Taking the back way would be my advice to those wanting the experience of the Haiku Stairs but also want to avoid any chance of getting fined (Its apparently $1000US) : as long as you have a good amount of hiking experience and have confident footing. Having microspikes would defiently help on this one especially in the wet. The All trails app stated this hike as 18km return but my GPS logged 21km by the time we went down the stairs a bit etc.

We made an early start to get to the start of the Moanalua trail. The trail head is in a small neighborhood and the carpark is a locked complex with a set of toilets. They dont offically open the gates till 7am but you can park outside and start earlier. I believe we may have got here around 5-5:30am. Be mindful of the locals that live here and try to be super quiet. The weather wasnt looking amazing on the drive there, and literally as soon as we got out of the car it started raining. We had read alot about this hike being difficult and super dangerous in the wet and this certainly was not a good start. We stood talking and procrastinating for a while trying to make a decision whether to push on or not. We decided to push on and would see how we would go.

The first few k’s is a nice easy walk along a gravel road. We had a group of cars randomly pass us earlier and ended up running into them along the road. They where a group of hunters with dogs out hunting for pigs. They pretty much suggested it wasnt a good idea doing it in the rain, and the weather continued to worsen and the rain got heavier. We walked back and forth for a while, even heading back to the car for a few hundred metres before commiting to it and continuing on. After 4.5km of nice flat hiking it was time to start to ascend upwards. In front of us was almost 800m in elevation gain and one hell of a slippery climb.

Being wet and slippery made it alot harder, every step you took was an gamble on whether you would find a good hard patch or loose your footing.

The trail continued to get skinnier and skinnier. A few ridge lines had drops on both sides and made it a little risky traversing them in the slippery mud. The views where incredible though and was all that much moody with waves of rain coming in and out.

There was a lot of false peaks and if i didnt have my All trails app up i really wouldnt of had any idea how far from the end we where. Near the top there is around several ropes which people have tied tied to help with the hike. These are extremely helpful and where a full-fledged necessity for us in the slippery mud. Kira was an absolute trooper making it up these as they where not easy.

It may look like im not enjoying myself here. Probably cause i wasnt. The mud and the rain wasnt fun but we where on a mission.

At the top of the last rope climb, the radio tower finally comes into view. On the other side of this tower would be the view we had climbed all this way for.

It was still a few super muddy ridgelines away though. These last few ridgelines where somewhat worse as it was all hard packed clay. It was pretty much a slippery dip at any point you headed downwards.

finally we made it to the radio tower after an incredible amount of effort. Sadly by the time we crossed the last few ridges the fog and rain had both rolled in. We had zero views and could literally only see 50-60m of the stairs. We had come so far at this stage we where happy to wait it out in the hope we would get clear skys.

The rain was getting harder and we ended up waiting it out inside the radio tower. We where shortly joined by another few blokes that had come up the same way we had. They where super stressed out and seemed very nervous about the climb back down in the slippery conditions. After telling us there was no chance of it clearing, they proceeded back down the trail.

Slowly we where starting to get a break in the clouds.

And after an hour or so wait it cleared. We had a great view over Oahu and Honolulu and finally it was worth all the effort.

We where pretty buggered at this stage so didnt head to much further down the stairs. We where joined by a few people that came up the front way up the stairs though ,and they let us know how much work it was coming up that way.

There was amazing views on both sides of the valley.

The way down wasnt much more fun then the way up. It kept raining as we descended and didnt help the slippery conditions at all. I was more then happy to see the car at the end of the trail after being muddy and wet for so long.

This would pretty much be the end of the trip to Hawaii. We talked about going out in Honolulu that night but the hike had destroyed us both and we where pretty much sleep walking at 8:30pm. I flew out the next day nice and early and Kira continued to spend a few more days exploring the northern side of the Island.

I really did enjoy my time in Hawaii, espically Kauai. Its a super special place and i had a few surreal moments i wont ever forget there.

OAHU : And the MUDDY Trek to the Stairway to Heaven