Hawaii, 1974

by Don Chesnut ©2005

In January or February of 1974, I had to go to Honolulu, Hawaii to help my long-estranged wife, Terry, and my son, Donald ("Monkey") with some legal matters (that's another story). I packed my bicycle and a small backpack and eventually landed at the Honolulu airport. I put my bicycle together, got a map of Honolulu and headed to the opposite side of the city to an area on the other side of Diamond Head. The police pulled me over just as I was getting to the city and gave me a ticket for not having a bicycle license plate. They told me I couldn't ride my bike; I had to walk it to where I was going (20 miles away). After they left, I bought a flashlight (it was dark by then), taped it to my bike and rode the rest of the way. I stayed about a week on Oahu and traveled around a bit. I went body surfing in the same place where the Bonzai Pipeline is. This is not a body surfing beach and I thought I was going to drown, although I'm a good swimmer.

Later, my Dad joined me. Dad, Donald and I went to the Big Island (Hawaii). We did the usual tour including walking through lava tubes, looking down the crater at Kilauea, and sampling fresh pineapple. A recent lava flow had blocked off one of the Park roads. After that, we went to the island of Kauai and took a boat tour to the Fern Grotto, etc. Later we took a helicopter ride to Waimea Canyon. My Dad took a lot of pictures, but I haven't been able to find them yet. These are mine. The following are descriptions and links to photographs. Or you may just want to view the photographs in the thumbnail directory (no maps or descriptions).

Helicopter ride to Waimea Canyon, Kauai

• Helicopter ride
• waterfall inside step gorge, raining
• steep gorge wall, raining
• inside the gorge
• flying back out the blind gorge, constantly raining, more than 450 inches per year
• flying along the coast, looking toward mountain
• flying along the coast
• Donald looking out of the helicopter, about 6-years old
• another view of mountain
• looking at coastline, South Pacific was filmed here, this was Bali Hai
• same view, nice beach
• same rugged point
• rugged coastal cliff, deadly waves
• coastal cliff
• steep, sharp ridges
• Waimea Canyon, "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and deepest canyon in the Pacific, as deep as 3600 feet (Google Map)

After our visit to Kauai, we went back to Oahu. Dad went back home to Kentucky, and I joined Terry and her group of friends. The group then went to Maui and we stayed in Lahaina. While there, I went swimming in a secluded bay were mother whales and their calves swimming. Through a series of very unusual and interesting events, I got separated from the group (another very interesting story that I may tell sometime). After helping a couple of the fellows get a job at Lahaina, I hitched a ride to the north side of the island, to Iao Valley State Park.

Iao Valley State Park, Maui

• view while hiking in the park (Google Map)
• steep, sharp ridges
• one of the steep valleys
• Iao Needle
• another view of the Needle
• view of mountain side
• hiking trail up mountain, lots of ferns
• view from hiking trail
• creek in Iao Valley
• Belladonna or Datura plant (Nightshade family) in botanical garden in park, poisonous, no doubt
• exotic flower in same botanical garden

While I was leaving the Park, a fellow with a fruit-stand truck asked me to do him a favor. He asked if I would drive his other truck back down to town. Because I had to walk several miles in that direction anyway, I agreed to do it. When we got to town, he gave me a couple of dollars and two coconuts. When I got to town, it was afternoon. I decided to hitch a ride to Haleakala Crater and camp out in the Park. It was a winter afternoon and the days were short. I caught a ride to the top of Haleakala with a fellow who was the night-time overseer at a communications station. He told me there were no camping areas at the top. He said that I was welcome to stay the night at the station. By then it was getting dark anyway and too late to go all the way back down the mountain..

• sunset at the top of Haleakala, Maui

The next day, I got up, thanked the overseer, and hiked down to the Park Visitors Center (Google Map of station and visitor's center). I found that there were trails across the crater and that one could camp at the far end of the crater. I also learned that there was a long trail down the volcano to the ocean. To hike and camp in the crater, I had to register (they didn't want people lost). After registering, I set out down the crater. See Haleakala National Park web site (external site) and the Haleakala National Park Page (external site). I took the Keoneheehee (Sliding Sands) trail from the visitors center to Paliku cabin across the crater (10.4 miles)(Google Map).

• observatories at top of Haleakala, early morning [Haleakala Observatories web page, external site.]
• view from top of Haleakala, early morning, way above the clouds, rest of Maui in background
• view of Haleakala crater, this is part of the Haleakala National Park, elevation over 10,000 feet
• another view of crater from the rim
• Haleakala Crater, I registered to hike and camp on the other side of the crater at the Park office
• starting my descent into the crater, my next camp was about 10 miles on the other side of the crater
• on the trail, one other person on the trail, I was the only camper to stay in the crater that night
• cinder cones and a Silversword, a type of century plant, on the crater floor
• my one canteen of water (for two days) and two coconuts, note cinder floor of crater. Most of the trail in the half of the crater near the visitors center, was like this.
• crater floor, looking back toward the crater rim where I started, clouds have finally risen to level of crater
• Aa (pronounced Ah-Ah), a type of lava on the side of the trail, my canteen for scale; you cannot walk on this sharp stuff, your shoes will be cut to shreds
• pahoehoe (pronounced peh-Hoi-hoi), another type of lava showing ropey texture of a more liquid lava surface, easy to walk on
• nene geese, at other end of crater, more vegetation, this highly endangered species of native goose was being reintroduced into this area. I camped in this area.
• geese, I walked spirals around the geese in order to get closer to them without walking directly toward them. Paliku Ranger station in back.
• closer view of geese
• I camped here with an Army blanket and a sheet of plastic; it got down below freezing in the night. My coconuts were bad; I couldn't eat them.

The next morning, I headed down to the ocean through a rift valley on the south side of the volcano (Kaupo Gap trail)(Google Map). Walking downhill all day is painful; I had blisters on the bottoms and tops of my feet and my calves were very sore.

• southern rift valley of Haleakala, the next morning I walked from the crater to the ocean down this valley. The hike to the coastal cliffs was 17 miles (I was told). It was another 8 miles (I was told) to the first potable water at a state park. I don't know what actual hiking mileages were.
• view, part way down the volcano
• looking back up the rift valley, from where last picture was taken
• cliff-top road, my blanket roll in the bushes, from here I hiked another 8 miles to get water.
• looking back up from dry creek bed, from cliff-top dirt road
• view of road, cliffs and ocean, no water to drink though (Google Map)
• view from cliff top
• finally water, they called it Seven Pools and Seven Falls, but I think its official name is Oheo Gulch, part of the Haleakala National Park (Google Map). Anyway, I filled my canteen, went swimming in the pools and camped out here. I also saw the first people since leaving the crater the day before.
• the pools and falls
• my campsite and bedroll; it rained heavily all night long, I was soaking wet, but my wool blanket kept me warm even though soaked. When the sun came up the next morning, it only took about an hour for the sun to dry the blanket out.
• better view of the pools and falls
• view of the pools, the water was actually pretty cold
• This fellow picked up several of us hitchhiking from the state park; thank you, whoever you are.
• view of another valley, too dark
• first settlement after leaving park, is this the outskirt of Hana?

After this, I didn't have much money left and only an airline ticket back to Kentucky. I flew from Maui to the Oahu airport. I decided to stop off at San Francisco to visit my cousin, Richard Hackney. I stayed with him for about a week and then flew back to Kentucky.

• San Francisco

I was really broke by the time I got back to Kentucky, but I'd had a pretty good trip.