Hiking Diamond Head and the Honolulu Zoo

Start of the Hike

  The bustling district of Waikiki can easily overwhelm the senses with all of its high rise resorts, fancy eateries, and expensive shops. Luckily a quiet piece of nature sits just beyond the concrete jungle. Diamond Head crater has always been a famous backdrop for Waikiki pictures but the crater is worth exploring up close.

   Being so close to the city, the trail that winds its way up the crater rim to the summit of Diamond Head is one of the most well trodden paths in Hawaii. However, once you pass through the tunnel to the inside of the crater all the noise of the city is gone and a huge green field replaces buildings. When it rains a lot there can even be a beautiful little pond inside the crater depression.
 

Diamond Head Lighthouse

The Royal Hawaiian in Pink

    
   
    
     

       The path heads up in a switchback style before going through a dimly lit tunnel. Here you have a choice of climbing some very steep stairs to an old military lookout post or taking your left which is another switchback up to several view points. Eventually the two paths connect in a big circle.

Military Lookout Post with a View

  The view from the top is quite amazing. Waikiki and greater Honolulu look almost peaceful. Waves that wrap into the beach are dotted with surfers. And all kinds of boats cruise the darker blue water offshore. I do like the one random pink hotel sticking out and resisting change on the main drag.

Another prominent feature you notice from the summit is a large green area between Diamond Head and the buildings of Waikiki. This is where the Honolulu Zoo is located. Luckily I was hiking with Morgan and Josh from Maui and we all had a mutual friend who just started as an animal keeper at the zoo. So after our hike we drove a couple miles to meet her for a backstage tour.
  The Honolulu Zoo may seem a little compact at first but on second glance it was quite expansive. Going to zoos always takes me back to my wildlife encounters across the world from Africa to India to Central America. I watched the chimps for a long time, always amazed at how human they can seem. I will always remember seeing a full grown male chimp walking through the forest in Uganda looking just like one of the bigfoot films you see on TV. The lemur exhibit made me miss having them crowd all over the truck and jump on my head back on St. Catherines Island where my dad was a zoologist while I was growing up. And seeing the tigers almost made me want to go back to India to try and track them again. With a modest local entry price of $8 I think I will be heading back to the Honolulu again soon.

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