Diamond Head Crater And Pali Lookout

One beautiful morning in Hawaii…

Okay, I should start out differently because every morning in Hawaii seems to be simply beautiful, sunny and just breathtaking…

For months, we’ve been telling our kids we were going to climb a volcano. This was the day we all were looking for—climbing up Diamond Head. This crater’s name is Leahi, meaning brow of the tuna in Hawaiian. British sailors discovered diamonds on the crater’s slopes and named it Dimond Head in 19th century.  Apparently, diamonds that they discovered, were not diamonds at all, but merely shiny calcite crystals. Some believe it was created about 100,000 years ago. Geologists believe that it will not erupt again.

We arrived to the sight at about 9 am. By that time, the whole parking lot right next to the entrance to the hiking trail was completely full. Robert dropped us off there and drove back a mile or so away to park in residential area.

In the meantime, I smothered Katya, Alex and Mark with sunscreen and got ready for our hike.

“Allow 1.5 hours from start to finish….” hmmmm, can Mark do it?

We started our journey on a pretty easy well-paved trail.

But pretty soon the trail turned into a more adventurous kind. By the way, do you see that blue dot in the middle? That is Katya. She decided to leave her family behind and hike as fast as she could. We stopped her half way (and unfortunately she got in trouble for that…this is not Japan after all).

Family picture at one of the lookouts. Mark is doing amazingly well!

And finally, a family picture on the very top. We made it! No one had a meltdown although it was really-really hot and everyone was thirsty.

We enjoyed the view from the top for a while and then headed down.

This is what the crater looks like if you were to take a picture of it from a helicopter. Amazing!

I believe our hike up and down took a little bit over an hour.  The kids were such great sports!

We grabbed some lunch from a place recommended by some travel books, Diamondhead Market and Grill (it was pretty good) and then headed home for some more beach time.

On the way back to Bellows, we took a more scenic route. These tall trees were amazing green walls on both sides of the highway.

We stopped at Nu Uanu Pali Lookout on the way. This place is one of the windiest places in Hawaii.

Kids had a lot of fun trying to not fly away.

This look out point gives one wonderful views as well.

Oh, there is so much beauty in Hawaii. Our pictures cannot possibly show you how truly amazing this area looks. Hope we can explore someday more of these beautiful places in Oahu.

The rest of the day we spent at the beach;) The end!