1871 Trail

Check off one more thing on the to-do list! Because today I rounded up the troops for a trip I've been wanting to go on for weeks now- the 1871 Trail down at Pu'u Honua O Honaunau (City of Refuge)! I grew up here, but until very recently, had no idea it existed.


Grandpa Wayne took this picture of the happy hikers at the start of the trail.

The 1871 Trail is so named because back in 1871, in lieu of paying your taxes, you could help rebuild this old former trade route/trail (too bad Nicolas Cage couldn't work out a deal like this today).

Grandpa and his two boys Kenichi & Riki! The trail takes you along the beach, where you can see multiple lava tubes, heiaus (temples), holua (sled) trails, crumbling village structures, etc.

But my absolute favorite feature of the trail was the old rock ramp that was built so that horses carrying goods could travel between villages...it felt kinda medieval!

The only bummer of the day? My grossly out-of-date guidebook didn't prepare me that the lava tube/cave (to the left) is no longer accessible, so we could neither explore it nor cliff dive down from it into the ocean!

The beauty of this little cove/cave nearly made up for that though...couldn't help but think how cool it would be to kayak over to it from the nearby beach once Ry is older and have a picnic there with spam musubis (just like the ancient Hawaiians probably did...with their spam musubis).

After walking about a mile in (it's a loop trail, a total of two miles), we turned back and made a quick stop at...

...Pu'u Honua O Honaunau (City of Refuge), mostly so we could take a picture in front of their well-photographed cultural sites! (Look at Ryan checking out the statue!)

Psst...one of these guys are Roy (& Ry)...guess which! (Hint: Roy has the biggest butt and is wearing socks.)

The 'ohana (I look so brown next to my two haole boys)!

Just back from 6 weeks in Japan, cousins Kenichi & Riki always provide awesome entertainment and company for Ry!

...and no trip would be complete without a stop at the beach (and dislocating your 1-year old's arms out of his sockets)! We love 'Two Steps' down near Honaunau...huge shallow, sandy swimming area filled with turtles for the keiki.

More father-son fun at the beach! I know what you freezing cold East Coast folks are probably thinking- life is rough here in the islands during the winter. And you know what? You're right. Because the water was a bit on the chilly side- I'm thinking 78? Maybe 77? After about 30 minutes, Ryan's teeth chattered so hard we had to take him out of the water. I'm betting it's at least that cold right now in Maine, right? So yeah, we all suffer during the winter. But at least we don't complain about it!