What You Didn’t Know About Hawaii’s Manoa Falls Trail

Contrary to popular belief, the name of the waterfall is not Manoa Falls – there are seven waterfalls in the back of Manoa Valley and they each have their own name. According to an 1882 government survey, the traditional name for Manoa Falls is actually Waihii Nui (meaning “lifted water”). map. I hadn’t even discovered his name until recently, as it was all but erased from popular usage.

After spraying myself with mosquito repellent, I walk up the hill to the trailhead. The wind is cool and the air is humid – typical of the Manoa Valley, which sees frequent rain showers. It’s the first time I’ve been back since it reopened. It had been closed for two years, from 2019 to 2021, as it suffered security improvements to avoid falling rocks. They also added wider paths, new steps and additional seating.

I stop at a welcome sign encouraging me to participate in a Hawaiian protocol, asking the Goddess Laka to watch over me as I enter her domain.

“She is a guardian of the forest and a fertility goddess, identified with the red lehua flower,” the sign reads. “Before entering the forest, we sing a pule pale (prayer of protection) to Laka, asking for his guardianship.”

The dangers of rockfalls and landslides are always at the forefront when I hike to the waterfalls, as they occur on occasion no matter how many preventative measures are taken. The most famous was the 1999 Sacred Falls State Parks landslide; Waihii Nui’s last landslide was in 2018. I read the lyrics to the song, then started my journey.

Trees draped in foliage tower above me, and large heart-shaped leaves as big as my head dot the landscape. Hikers now enjoy this trail for the scenery, but this forest was used by early Hawaiians to gather wood for shelter, tools and canoes, and plants for food, medicine and clothing.

The hike also takes you through Hawaii’s history. The back of the Manoa Valley is known for a battle, and it was once nicknamed “the paddock” because it was difficult to escape. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, royalists plotting to bring Queen Liliuokalani back to the throne hid along various mountain trails and streams around Waihii Nui from the new government that was there to arrest them for treason. Called the Battle of Manoa in 1895, they fired on each other until a cannon arrived. Eventually, all were captured or surrendered.

The start of the hike has me crossing a small stream through a shipping container. On the other side, a panoramic view of the large and beautiful tropical forest that surrounds me. Greenery everywhere, it looks so perfect it almost looks neat, instead of the tangled jungle that it is. It’s no wonder the trail has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows, such as “Jurassic Park,” “Jurassic World,” “Hawaii 5-O,” “Lost,” and “Aquaman 2,” according to the Hawaii Film Office.

Although overwhelmingly beautiful, many plants are not native to the islands, as more than 13,000 have been introduced since contact with the West. But it’s still possible to find native koa, uluhe and hapuu ferns, and bright red ohia lehua flowers scattered around if you take the time to look, as I do, as I continue my climb on terraced steps of gravel.

The trail gradually ascends to an elevation of 800 feet parallel to Waihi Stream, passing through a banyan tree arch, a bamboo forest, and a large seating area with an Instagrammable tree arch throne.

What I don’t see on the trail is a ghost. Spooky stories of Hawaiian night walkers (ghosts of warriors and chiefs) lurking around bushes and roaming the trail are often told, but these haunted stories are not true, according to Lopaka Kapanui, a master Native Hawaiian storyteller who has a ghost travel agency called Hawaiian Mysteries.

“Night walkers are usually warriors who travel in procession to guard the most sacred alii (chiefs) as they travel from place to place,” Kapanui wrote to SFGATE in an email. “The Hawaiians believed that certain alii were so sacred that no commoner could look directly at them. on an unsuspecting commoner.

Bloggers posted stories online of night walkers haunting the Waihii Nui Falls trail, then Wikipedia and other media picked it up and spread the information, which is not rooted in ancient legends or in Hawaiian oral history.

“Night walkers do not walk through twisted trees on the trail. It was something that a random hiker came up with and the story took off,” Kapanui said. He also says the 3 second video who was taken during the HURT100 race was also not a night walker, but a real person covered in mud. “Night walkers travel in processions, not individually. …If it was something supernatural, it could just be a ghost or a spirit.

As Kapanui suggests, other legendary supernatural creatures can be found in Hawaiian forests, such as the dreaded moo (a reptilian water spirit), a shapeshifter, who mostly takes the form of a beautiful woman. Guardians of streams and waterfalls, the moo will fight to the death to protect the water necessary for life.

The trail gets steeper as I go up the last few steps and I hear the sound of rushing water getting loud – it tells me I’m close. Then finally, through the trees, my eyes see the tall Waihii Nui waterfall flowing down the mountainside. His flow is light, but still fascinating to watch.

Where the trail ends there are lots of people lining a rock face and taking pictures. Others descend to get their feet wet or go swimming, although signs warning of falling rocks and the bacterial disease leptospirosis demand otherwise.

Maneuvering around the crowd drawn to Waihii Nui Falls, I stand in front and feel the cool breeze billowing around me. Finding a seat, I spend time enjoying the moment, as people always have and will continue to do for generations to come.

Editor’s Note: SFGATE recognizes the importance of diacritics in the Hawaiian language. We cannot use them due to the limitations of our publishing platform.