Last Saturday I solo hiked the ‘Aiea Loop trail on a whim, and while I was there I meandered down an interesting side path which turned out to be the ‘Aiea Ridge trail. I traveled along the ridge for about an hour and a half, snapping photos and enjoying the cool mountain breeze. While the loop trail is usually well traveled on weekends, I was surprised to find myself alone on the ridge trail. There’s a wide variety of interesting trees and plants on the top of the ridge, including ‘ie‘ie vines, tree ferns and mosses.

One can appreciate the beauty of the mountains while driving through Halawa Valley on the H3 Freeway, but it’s another experience altogether when you’re exploring it on foot. ‘Aiea Ridge is one of the nicest ridge trails I’ve been on, and because it starts at the same trailhead as the ‘Aiea Loop trail, it’s easy to access. Parking is also fairly safe at Keaiwa Heiau State Park (don’t overlook good parking… you don’t truly appreciate it until someone tries to break into your car).

I posted photos of the ‘Aiea Ridge trail on Flickr. Sometime in the future I’ll organize a day hike so we can finish the entire ridge trail together; it’s not really safe to hike on ridges by yourself, but I didn’t fall off the side, so I guess this one time was OK…