Hiking

Kealia Trail: A Piece of Autumn Hidden in Hawaii

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Trekking Thursday

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Living in Hawaii, we don’t have the opportunity to experience the changing seasons like many places can.

I love summer, so I’m perfectly happy with that about 335 days out of the year. However, I really DO MISS AUTUMN and wish we could have that for a little while too!
Much to my surprise, we were out hiking this week and stumbled upon….Autumn!
Who would’ve thought, along the coast of Hawaii we would have discovered a little piece of autumn on a leaf covered trail!
It smelled like Autumn 🍂. It looked like Autumn 🍂. It WAS Autumn 🍂 in Hawaii!!!

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so many fall leaves

The Kealia Trail is located at the Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia, HI on the island of Oahu.

The trail in its entirety is roughly 7.6 miles long. We had a group of little walkers aged 3-5 so we “just” hiked to the top which was roughly 2.5 miles to where a nice covered picnic table greeted us.

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19 switchbacks will lead you to the top of this

This trail consists of 19 switchbacks. Yes-19!

The trail itself has quite a few large rocks to walk over which adds to the challenge. These little guys did an incredible job! I was so proud of them. You are scaling the side of this mountain so there are slight drop offs along the way as well so be especially careful if you take your keiki (children).

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There aren’t too many hikes located on the North Shore. This area in particular doesn’t have very many so the views from Kealia Trail are pretty unique. 

You will have a constant view of Dillingham Airfield and the beautiful North Shore coastline.

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We were lucky and saw several sky-divers and hover planes which distracted us from it being 19 grueling switchbacks which are at a pretty steady incline.

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On our way back down, it started DOWN PORING!

Our nice, autumn stroll turned into a mad rush to the car! We had to be careful of the rocks becoming slippery and the trail turning into a giant mud slide. The kids thought it was pretty fun though.

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a constant muddy puddle
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the trail turned into a waterfall
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my ladybug all soaking wet

I’m so glad we chose this particular adventure this week. It was just what I needed.

It reminded me to embrace the little things. You just never know where life will take you and what you may miss some day. For me…the simple smell of the Autumn leaves. Wandering along the trail with that special scent made my day! Even the rain couldn’t ruin my day after that!

Get outside. Enjoy the seasons. Embrace each day!

Hidden in Hawaii

With Aloha,

Lacy

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Published by adventuresofabusymomcom

I am a military wife, a mother, a hiker, a dog lover, a refurbisher, a reader, a drawer, a baker...whatever I can do to enjoy life is what you will catch me doing!

15 thoughts on “Kealia Trail: A Piece of Autumn Hidden in Hawaii”

  4. I loved this post. The photos are beautiful, but I loved the way you made even the rain a part of the adventure for the kids. Like the waterfall trail. And it did look autumny, but how nice to have on tee-shirts and shorts. There is a reason Hawaii has aloha. Have a good rest of our evening.

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    1. Thank you! You mentioned the shorts in fall thing…The craziest season for me out here is winter. Around Christmas we get snow brought in for holiday fairs etc. Playing in snow while wearing flip flops takes some getting used to! ❄️🏝

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