Hawaii 2018, Day 2, Part 2: Manoa Falls

Another sight we missed on our last Hawaii Trip was Manoa Falls. It wasn't too far to drive from Tantalus Lookout to the trailhead for the waterfall. Unfortunately, Marsha and I didn't realize that we would be hiking that day, so we weren't wearing hiking shoes. Erik claims he told us we would be hiking; we claim he didn't. The debate goes on. Regardless, the trail wasn't too bad at the beginning. We had to park down the road from the trailhead, so the first portion of the hike was on the road. The beginning of the trail was also flat and easy. 

We saw these red-headed birds all over Oahu. We never decided what they were.

Ready to hike to Manoa Falls from the parking lot.

The forest was amazing to see. It was as if it came out of a fairy tale. The trail gradually became steeper and more rocky until we came the base of a badly eroded, rocky staircase. After climbing the awkward stairs, we continued hiking uphill as we finally approached the waterfall. It wasn't terribly impressive, but we lingered a while so that everyone could catch their breath before descending the trail. Elisa was convinced that unicorns lived behind the waterfall.

After hiking for so long, we could finally see the waterfall in the top right corner.

Back at the parking lot, there was a building with a gift shop, information desk, and snack bar. We wandered around the building for a while to cool off as we straggled off the trail in separate groups. Since we didn't get any for our last Hawaii trip, we decided to try some shave ice. Each order of shave ice could be topped with four different flavors, one on each quarter. The kids had fun deciding which flavors to get. They all pigged out and made a huge mess, but they sure had fun.