Makiki Valley Loop Trail is in the middle of Tantalus, a protected forested area of Oahu. After all the hiking I’ve been doing, I thought this would be a walk in the park, but it was actually deceptively a bit harder. I didn’t realize it was rated moderate, it was 1000 ft gain but I didn’t look at the map hard enough to realize it’s all in the first mile or so, phew! This is the maze of roots we navigated working our way up. There were beautiful views of the valley on both sides.
The two other spouses who went happened to be sub spouses, it was great bonding!
There’s a secret extension to a waterfall and I was happy we found it and came across it. It was so beautiful.
It ended up taking us a little over two hours with time built in just to enjoy the moment, 4 miles, and 946ft elevation gain. There was a decently big parking lot, maybe enough for 25 cars, but it’s a really popular area and I think it was filled by the time we left. I’m glad we got there early. Still suffering from a low-ish turnout on hikes. But it’s better than the zero I had over the winter!