Pololu Trail — Attraction in Hawaii

For those looking for a trail that features challenges, but is suitable for all skill (and preparedness) levels this is the trail.

You start by coming in off highway 270 on the only road that takes you to the overlook. You can stop there or continue down the trail. We went with our 2 and 4.5 year olds and they were able to make it down and up without issue (the 2 year old did need to be carried most of the way up, however).

The trail has a lot of rock features and slightly challenging grades. We saw people wearing flip flops and sandals and they really didn't seem to mind. Although I'm sure it was difficult in terms of footing and hard on the ankles.

After short decent, you make it to the base and the black lava rock beach. Not ideal at all for swimming (at least in March) as it is incredibly rough water and jagged rock shoreline. Tons of crabs too 🦀.

I recommend traveling south a but on to the fringe of the Polou forest and checking out the treeline and stream. It is such a beautiful sight.

The climb up was pretty easy as you have more of a chance to get your footing and take a breather if you need to. Overall, beautiful sights and a great short hike for families and the novice adventurer. Take water, nutrition and good shoes. Please don't be one of those people that gets injured because they came...

A great diversion while driving around the north side of the big island. We did the hike, but honestly the views were best from the overlook. If I could do it all over again, I would just view the overlook and skip the hike, and spend that time in Waimea instead.

The hike is still ok though if you really want to go down to the coast. There are volunteers in the parking lot that warn/educate visitors about the difficulty of the hike. As other reviewers mentioned, if you hike at all or are in at least somewhat decent physical shape, the hike will not be a problem. Oh, and if you remember to bring at least the most basic of hiking gear. I couldn’t believe how many people were planning to tackle this trail wearing crocs/sandals and with no water.

The trail is pretty short. About 30-45 minutes one way. It’s a fairly steep incline, but nothing that you will need to scramble for. The trail has little shade, but as the day goes on the amount of shade increases thanks to the location of the cliff and trees. Parking is tight, but street parking is available just outside of the parking lot. There are reserved stalls for those just viewing the overlook and not...

I highly recommend to follow the Awini Trail further than just the black sand beach.

The Awini Trail itself can not be rated on Google, so here's some more details on that one:

From the end of the beach goes a smaller path up to the next valley. On Google Maps it shows as Awini Trail.

The hike was extremely muddy yesterday, but not to exhausting. Expect about 30min walk each way from the northern end of the beach. So all in all 2 hours of hike time from the parking lot.

We just followed what seemed like a trail and almost gave up at a fallen tree branch. However there is always a way to continue, the hike is not to strenuous, but wear study hiking boots for the mud.

You can sit down at the end of the trail and enjoy the view.

Please note: no restrooms (not even near the beach) take at least 2 liters of water with you. The most strenuous part is the hike up from Polulu to car park. lot of fallen fruits on the path - thousands of flies trail conditions get much better after the first half. even on a weekend we only met two other groups of hikers the whole trail. Polulu is much more...