Thousands congest the Diamond Head Summit Trail every day

With the hours ticking down on their Hawaii vacation, Vancouver, British Columbia, residents San­deep Ran­dhawa and Pam Sidhu decided to check off a most important item on their must-do list.

"We’d heard so much about it," said Ran­dhawa, 39, still beaming from a late-afternoon hike up and down the Diamond Head Summit Trail. "It was highly recommended from other people who have visited Hawaii."

Randhawa and Sidhu were among thousands of visitors to walk the 0.8-mile path to the summit Sunday.

On any given day, the state monument accommodates an estimated 3,000 walk-in visitors, 300 cars and dozens of tour buses, making it the most popular trail on Oahu. The onslaught begins at about 7 a.m. each morning as hundreds of tourists arrive by tour bus. Congestion on the mostly paved trail remains high through the early afternoon.

Ross Dauby, 23, brought high school friends Tyler and Amy Allen to the crater Sunday just a few hours before their scheduled flight back to Ferdinand, Ind.

"Everybody goes to Diamond Head," said Dauby, who admittedly was making his first visit to the crater after three years of living in Hono­lulu. "You can’t say you visited Hawaii if you don’t go to Diamond Head."

In fact, hiking Hawaii trails has become an essential part of many vacation itineraries. While many visitors still flock to Diamond Head because of established celebrity, its iconic profile on the Hono­lulu skyline and its low-stress, kid-friendly trail — and others to relatively easy high-traffic hikes like Manoa Falls, Mau­na­wili Falls and Kuli­ouou Ridge — a growing number are following Internet breadcrumbs to traditionally less traveled trails.

"There has definitely been an increase in hiking across the board," Mike Algiers, a hike coordinator and trail maintenance organizer for the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club. "That’s a good thing; our trails are for everybody. But the thing we’re always concerned about is safety."

Algiers said the proliferation of hiking blogs and websites has spread awareness of lesser-known trails around the state, although not always with the proper cautions.

"So many bloggers are posting photos and reports from their hikes, and word gets out," Algiers said. "It becomes the thing to do — the hot trail. But bragging about these things may not be appropriate because sometimes people are lured to trails that they don’t have the skills or experience to handle."

For example, Puu Mana­mana, an experts-only hike in Kaa­awa, was rarely trod until it gained infamy on adventure blogs and hiking guides for the numerous photos of hikers posing on its treacherous rock outcroppings or along its narrow ridgeline.

In recent years Hono­lulu fire rescue personnel have staged numerous rescues of overmatched hikers unable to leave the trail on their own. In 2013, 23-year-old Elizabeth Tarpey died after slipping off a badly eroded patch of trail and plunging some 300 feet down the sheer mountainside.

Algiers said he once saw a young man taking a selfie while on a treacherous section of the trail.

"It made me shudder," Algiers said.

Increased traffic on hiking trails has proved troublesome for surrounding communities.

Na Ala Hele, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ trails and access program, oversees some 43 trails on Oahu. Numerous other trails are accessible with permission of private landowners.

In neighborhoods around the most popular trailheads, residential street parking can be overrun from morning until evening. Police and neighborhood boards regularly receive complaints from homeowners upset with mud-caked hikers lazing on their lawns or availing themselves of their garden hoses.

The hiking club typically does not schedule hikes at high-traffic trails to avoid adding to congestion problems and contributing to the degradation of the trails themselves, many of which receive extensive and often conspicuous maintenance throughout the year to combat erosion.

For Algiers and others who regularly take advantage of the island’s numerous scenic and readily accessible hiking trails, responsible stewardship of public trails is part of a commitment to ethical hiking that also includes courtesy, respect and self-awareness.

"I’m happy to see increased interest in hiking in Hawaii," he said. "I’d just encourage every hiker to hike in a group, know the trails and know their personal limitations."