Finally, finally, holy cow, finally.
Something is finally being done about the out-of-control mess that has become of Maunawili Falls trail.
It’s not an immediate fix. Nor is it a solid plan. But it’s a toe in the right direction after years and years of shrugging and “studying” and community outcry and God-only-knows how many helicopter rescues of dingbat tourists who got in way over their abilities on that ankle-snapping mud bog of a hike.
To describe what has happened to the peaceful Maunawili neighborhood around the trailhead as “inconvenient” or “disruptive” is like calling a bomb blast “kinda noisy.”
Tourists show up after reading boastful online reviews, inspired by carefree Instagram images, thinking that they’re in for a magic walk in a benevolent rainforest to a crystal waterfall so perfect it’s like it was made for a beer commercial.
And then they get there and there’s no parking lot, so they park their cars wherever — on people’s lawns, halfway in the street, right up next to fire hydrants, blocking driveways. They soon realize that the mud goes halfway up their legs, so they leave their shoes behind. Sometimes they leave their clothes behind. They leave piles of trash behind. They poop in old ladies’ yards. They pee in people’s bushes. They hike in late in the day, stay until it’s night, whoop and holler in the dark and have to be rescued by helicopter just when neighbors in the area are settling down to dinner or Netflix or sleep.
It’s crazy. It’s been crazy for a long time.
But maybe now, finally, things are beginning to turn.
The city Department of Planning and Permitting has put the landowner, HRT Realty, on notice that a plan to improve access to the trail must be devised by June and enacted by fall or else it can’t operate its Royal Hawaiian Golf Club anymore. We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.
Meanwhile the word is getting out on social media that the hike isn’t as peaceful and pristine as one would hope and that, in fact, it isn’t worth the effort.
Some Yelp reviews from the last month:
“A total slop fest and the falls are anti-climactic. I can’t imagine the trail ever being dry. I would never ever bring small kids or people that get angry easily.”
“Be careful jumping from the waterfall — it could be so much fun, but I know someone who broke her arm in the jump.”
“The experience here was a bit heart breaking. The amount of trash on the trail was terrible. The mud on this trail is not the worst part. I love a good squishy mud trail but the trash in it was sad to say disgusting.”
And then, perhaps the most damning indictment of all:
“Don’t expect to get any good photography without a hundred others in frame.”
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
