Camping in Oahu, HI

[Fronkey]

Have not stayed there, however my grandaughter has camped with classmates there.

That's really great to hear. Thanks!

I saw you mentioned space A , If you are military connected I would check out Bellows AFB. nice beach and plenty of trees.

Thanks! The Wife actually just told me about it and I think we're going to go there for a night or two. Apparently they have one of the nicest beaches on the island from what she's told me.

I'll ask my daughter as she lives there with my son-in-law. He is in charge of the MP's at Hale Koa. When we went to visit them in December there is a park close to them right on the beach that looked kind of cool: Kalaeloa Regional Park.

You are the adventurous type. Check out the stairway to heaven hike. I did this when I was there...one of the most amazing experiences. There is risk...but well worth it.

Thanks sampson. I actually HEAVILY researched that hike during my honeymoon and the only reason why I didn't do it is because of those "risks." Even though I hear the guard is oblivious, I have read stories about police waiting at the bottom of those stairs to write hefty fines. I'm jealous you got to do it and I for sure will make it up there someday. Hopefully they don't remove those stairs anytime soon.

Fronkey

[sampson]

She recommends secretly island by chinamans hat. If you like to snorkel the northeast shore is really good area. Prob not as good for surfing there. I assume you'll have a car. Here are the pics she sent.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819682.357008.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819696.339160.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819711.585633.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819723.535144.jpg

Regarding the stairs, there is a way through the woods past the guard without him seeing. I went at 3am so we couldn't find it. If you go during the day you will see it. In any case, it depends on the guard as to whether the police show up. Our guy was partying so didn't really care about much. There was a different guy when we came down. The fine is 300 for trespassing.

[sampson]

Ps there were 7 other people the morning we went on a weekday.

[Rosaleen]

In addition to military and state campsites, there are city/county parks on several islands of Hawaii. For Oahu, go to the Honolulu County site. https://www.honolulu.gov/parks/camping.htm We saw numerous warnings about not leaving valuables unattended. Theft appears to be a big problem. A military facility may be the safest option. We had no problems on Kauai, though.

[bkrgi]

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden
45-680 Luluku Rd
Kaneohe, HI 96744
United States
This was the absolute best place I found while spending a Month there last fall if you want to camp....just realize that the gates close at about 7pm (check that though) Beyond that if you have access to the Military base stay there for the rest
Kailua is Stunning and Lanikai Beach there is the best on the island IMO
We stayed at a private residents in a separate room (bed shower) with simple cooking if need be for just under 2g per month in Kailua ...was perfect nothing fancy

Malaekahana Beach Campground...whether the State one or private one I was not overly impressed by. Overall Oahu does not encourage camping and all facilities are going into the toilet literally.....

[Fronkey]

She recommends secretly island by chinamans hat. If you like to snorkel the northeast shore is really good area. Prob not as good for surfing there. I assume you'll have a car. Here are the pics she sent.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819682.357008.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819696.339160.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819711.585633.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1430819723.535144.jpg

Regarding the stairs, there is a way through the woods past the guard without him seeing. I went at 3am so we couldn't find it. If you go during the day you will see it. In any case, it depends on the guard as to whether the police show up. Our guy was partying so didn't really care about much. There was a different guy when we came down. The fine is 300 for trespassing.

Those photos are beautiful. We do plan on doing some snorkeling because I want to make a video of the trip and I think that would be fun to get some under water stuff.
Yeah, the $300 really stinks, but my wife also has a job in the military where we really can't take the chance of her getting in trouble or even me.

In addition to military and state campsites, there are city/county parks on several islands of Hawaii. For Oahu, go to the Honolulu County site. https://www.honolulu.gov/parks/camping.htm We saw numerous warnings about not leaving valuables unattended. Theft appears to be a big problem. A military facility may be the safest option. We had no problems on Kauai, though.

We actually heard about that too and we're going to spend a couple nights in Bellows where theft isn't a problem.

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden
45-680 Luluku Rd
Kaneohe, HI 96744
United States
This was the absolute best place I found while spending a Month there last fall if you want to camp....just realize that the gates close at about 7pm (check that though) Beyond that if you have access to the Military base stay there for the rest
Kailua is Stunning and Lanikai Beach there is the best on the island IMO
We stayed at a private residents in a separate room (bed shower) with simple cooking if need be for just under 2g per month in Kailua ...was perfect nothing fancy

Those gardens look beautiful and the wife and I are probably going to make a point to hit that for a day or two. Thanks a lot!

Fronkey

[markparry]

Those photos are beautiful. We do plan on doing some snorkeling because I want to make a video of the trip and I think that would be fun to get some under water stuff.
Yeah, the $300 really stinks, but my wife also has a job in the military where we really can't take the chance of her getting in trouble or even me.


We actually heard about that too and we're going to spend a couple nights in Bellows where theft isn't a problem.


Those gardens look beautiful and the wife and I are probably going to make a point to hit that for a day or two. Thanks a lot!

Fronkey

If you look like military, you are a target for theft... They figure that you don't have any treaty of annexation and many locals (of all races) are raised with the knowledge that the annexation of Hawaii was hostile and illegal. Yes, you may have an aircraft carrier but you may also get your backpack stolen when you look away. The first time I brought my wife to Kauai, we left her new osprey backpack in a soft top jeep at an isolated beach parking lot. We've lived on Oahu for a couple years now, we are more careful about leaving things like that--we haven't had a repeat (and we don't drive a soft top jeep).

I mostly stealth camp on Oahu so far, so I don't have experience with campgrounds here. I live on Oahu and I'm planning a couple Big Island and Kauai trips where I'd like to do some backpacking.

Yes, Bellows is on base, but if it's the weekend, the locals are all there too if you camp on the beach. It's a good suggestion but I would still consider the possibility of theft there. By the way, an osprey crashed there two days ago and a civilian doctor camping pulled all of the injured out. Bellows is a skeleton of a base, it took 15 minutes for medics to respond to a crash while attempting to land on base. I love Waimanalo beach and Bellows is extra cool because you're allowed to camp there (it's the north end of amazing Waimanalo beach). But anybody is allowed to camp there if you're talking about the beach on the weekend.

My friends have told me to visit Malaekahana, it's kinda crazy I haven't been up there yet. The state park there, he told me, you park and walk a ways to your campsite (probably not that far, he said they brought the whole house with). Then, there's a different campsite next door called "Friends of Malaekahana", he said they had camping closer to your vehicle. As somebody mentioned previously, you aren't going to be impressed with the facilities anywhere most likely.

"Secret Island" is really a beach area you walk around to from Kualoa Regional Park (walk past the permitted grass sites heading south, looks like you are heading inland a little because its the north end of Kaneohe Bay, until there's only forest next to the beach), it's a beautiful beach, there's plenty of forest, and it does not have any noticeable houseless population. Some people also hammock camp on chinaman's hat (an actual island in the same area) but I'm not sure if there's even spots for two hammocks. You can walk to Chinaman's hat at low tide but don't try to return at high tide if you can't swim. I would offer my kayaks up (I live 3 miles away) but... You probably got a good enough deal on the airplane.

I would use Hoomaluahia Botanical Gardens more, but I'm pretty sure their gate hours are 9-4. There are campsites in the park but I really don't like the gate hours--and the campsites are maybe a little TOO nice. Tons of soft green grass. I'm not certain they would be hammock friendly? I was supposed to go on Likeke trail with Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club last Saturday but I ended up being on-call at work, that trail tour started from Hoomaluhia. I have read there is an "upside down waterfall" on the trail--the wind constantly carries the water up into mist instead of down like a waterfall is expected to do.

If you want to get photos of fish, Hanauma Bay, easy for casual visitors, closed Tuesday. There are some colorful corals at Electric Beach but they don't rival other locales around the world--also Electric Beach is probably only for experienced swimmers. Wierd thing, you're supposed to have a dive float and flag here any time you're underwater! I'm sure that doesn't apply at Hanauma Bay where it's enclosed--no boats to hit you. But I don't think most tourists know that law, never heard of a ticket written for it. Some are warned away from Electric Beach because of tides and waves, but I did my first solo snorkel and scuba dives on Oahu there, strong swimming background and a trained diver though. I need to do Sharks Cove still so I can't tell you much about that one yet.

I'm not especially drawn to Haiku staircase, there's plenty of other beautiful hikes here. The instability of the ground makes it overall a dangerous place to hike, I don't do the craziest ridge-line hikes either. You have a lot more hiking experience than I do most likely. Some people call one of the Haiku approaches from the other side of the mountain "legal" because it doesn't access the "no longer legal" trailhead, it comes from the other side of the island. They probably also leave a different direction than the initial trail head, I think I've seen some blog posts about this but not sure of their accuracy.

An interesting resource that has details about some of these locations:
http://www.thechasenorton.com/backpack-hawaii.html


If you wonder why I leave the "`" okina pause character off the hawaiian words, it's because I don't know the language well enough to get them correct consistently. UH style guide would have me simply get the words wrong consistently rather than only messing up half of them.

[akiame]

Mark, this is all really great info, thank you. I read about Chase Norton's Koolau ridge thru hike through another blog and it definitely helped wise me up to how dangerous ridge hiking can be there. I also am looking forward to connecting to the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club! Will be moving to Oahu in November. My boyfriend is out there now. Can't wait

[T- Minus]

when I was stationed there there is a very Nice park on Sand Island, good surf alot of trees, don't know if you can camp there or not its been years, but the island is on the south side across from Aloha Tower and you can get there by taking the road before the McD's off H1 via N. Nimitz hwy between the airport and tower, the park is at the end of the road past the Coast guard station about a mile.http://binged.it/1KQjmvj

[Kvothe]

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I did the stairway to heaven hike in 2010. We didn't know about the guard and he didn't let us up. After some convincing he told us that his shift, the last shift of the day was almost over. We walked away for 10 minutes and he was gone. Even left us some extra water. We met 4 other teams of hikers on the stairs. Bottom line, there were no guards very early and none in the late afternoon. If you want to make it, you can and it's well worth it!

Most of the guards did the hike themselves at one point or another.

Edit: Just to make it clear, this is a very difficult and dangerous hike. If you are not in excellent shape and physical condition, you should reconsider this trail....