Maʻakua Ridge Trail — Attraction in Oʻahu

Not for beginners! Yes we did not see a soul, and yes you experience a tremendous amount of Hawaiian flora and fauna, and yes the overlook of the town and the ocean is beautiful. But wow I feel a little mislead by all the reviews. My girlfriend and I both found this very challenging, and downright scary in a lot of parts. It seems like the entire trail is off camber. A ton of it is about a foot wide with a huge drop beside it. We encountered one spot where a huge mudslide had basically washed out the trail on an extremely vertical side of the mountain. You're hanging on for dear life to roots and anything you can find, praying the mud doesn't give way! We love to hike, but we would never do this trail again. If you have any fear of heights and you're not a seasoned hiker I'd steer clear...

Definitely not a novice experience! Plan to do some hiking through Hau’ula Homesteads just to get to the trail head - and once you’ve found the trail, anticipate narrow paths, boulder problems, ambiguous trail directions, overgrowth, mosquitoes, and a metric heckload of super steep switchbacks! The view at the top of the front ridge is worth it. Just make sure you’ve got the stamina and water to make it through the remaining 2/3 of the trail, or you’ll end up backtracking, like I did my first time through.

FYI, you will NOT have cell reception when you’re on the trail, so make sure of your directions before you head out. And as some others have mentioned, if it’s been very rainy, watch your footing - the first bit of uphill trail can be super slippey. I definitely wiped out on the...

Nice up and down hike with some cool ridges allowing lovely views. Mostly in the forested shade so great on a sunny day. Will get muddy with rain. Small river crossing at the start (dry...