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Hiking, biking Kaena Point

By Catherine Toth Fox • July 4, 2011 • #CatTravels

I get out — but I don’t get out to the West Side of Oahu nearly enough.

So when some friends wanted to hike and bike around Kaena Point, the westernmost point on the island, I didn’t hesitate.

Kaena Point is nothing short of magical.

It’s one of the last intact dune ecosystems in the main Hawaiian Islands and home to a growing population of rare and endangered coastal plants and seabirds such as the Laysan albatross and wedge-tailed shearwaters. The Hawaiian green sea turtles and monk seals — both endangered — often rest along the shoreline here.

It’s also an area teeming with cultural sites and significance. Kaena Point was once known as leina a kauhane, the leaping place of souls, where the spirits of the recently dead could be reunited with their ancestors.

Because of its cultural and environmental importance, it has been designated as a natural area reserve (NAR). The Kaena Point Ecosystem Restoration Project was set up to protect, preserve and restore the native environment here, including installing a predator-proof fence, the first of its kind in Hawaii.

We spent a Sunday morning traversing this unique coastline. Here’s what our trek looked like:

On the road

On the road
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Picture 1 of 30

We grabbed our bikes, shoes, water bottles, Spam musubis and a bag of Skittles and drove the nearly 50 miles from our house to Kaena Point State Park.

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Catherine Toth Fox

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7 Comments

  • Reply oldshoes July 4, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    awesome! is that pic you walking back? need a hat! also,they make these special scarf thingys that stay cool and keep you cool when in the blazing sun.Lot of triathletes wear um.

  • Reply MaxMaxMax July 4, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    LOL @ pic #25 captioned “impressive view!” Tooting your own horn Cat? LOL!!!

    Great photo essay of what looks like a nice place to spend the day. I’ll have to plan one there soon.

  • Reply oldshoes July 4, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    hehe….i was gonna say that, MMM. wasnt sure who it was. oh well, now that the cat is out of the bag…so to speak….i second it. or something.

  • Reply M July 5, 2011 at 6:48 am

    Hello Cat, I use to camp at Kaena Point a lot on the Mokuleia side before it became restricted.

  • Reply Ken July 5, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    Love your reports about Oahu hiking and biking adventures.

  • Reply DIO July 5, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    Geez, I think I’d be more tired from the drive than the bike ride. 😆

  • Reply Guest July 7, 2011 at 9:56 am

    Last time I went to Enfuego on Father’s day weekend it wasn’t that great. I got the tofu tuna patties which were undercooked and after waiting 20 minutes.

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About Me

About Me
Born and raised on O‘ahu, Hawaiʻi, Catherine Toth Fox has been chronicling her adventures in her blog, The Cat Dish, for more than a decade. She worked as a newspaper reporter in Hawai‘i for 10 years and continues to freelance—in between teaching journalism, hitting the surf and eating everything in sight—for national and local print and online publications. She’s currently the editor of HAWAIʻI Magazine.

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