Taken from Wikipedia: Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi (pronounced [leːˈʔɐhi]). The Hawaiian name is most likely derived from lae (browridge, promontory) plus ʻahi (tuna) because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna‘s dorsal fin.[3] Its English name was given by British sailors in the 19th century, who mistook calcite crystals on the adjacent beach for diamonds.
This hike is ridiculously popular, so it was on my list to just check off. I planned to do it with people from KOSC… but no one ended up committing… so I just did it with my thousand best tourist friends(i.e., alone). (Brian is gone, again…not for long). Thankfully, I don’t have to pay anything because of Kama’aina (I have a Hawaii license). Normally it’s $10 to park, and $5 to hike. They probably could charge $50 to park and there’d be lines… however, when I went (7:45a on a Saturday), it only took me ten minutes waiting to get a spot (there are attendants who do a great job monitoring). There’s a lot of turnover, so it goes quickly. I can imagine this being horrendous in prime tourist season.
The trail starts out nice and paved, and then it’s uneven and paved. Some parts of the unevenness get dirty, but truly most of it is paved. The elevation gain is 500ft. It starts in switchbacks and then there are a couple sets of stairs and a tunnel to get you to the finish.
Someone was BLASTING Christmas music on the way up. And I immediately understood why this hike gets a bad rap, and why I love my in the jungle ones. Anyway, in the photo above you can see the sheer amount of people that come. You can also see the bunker hidden in the dirt. There are a lot of history plaques and an audio tour, should you chose (I didn’t…)
The views were pretty cool.
You can see a couple more bunkers.
I’d put this on par with Haunama bay. Should you do it once? Probably. Is it a complete tourist attraction? Yes. It is an easy “hike” to take not in shape people on to see a decent view? Definitely. Am I worried about my car getting broken into? Not so much. Are there are million other hikes I’d recommend over this one? Absolutely.
