Hiking Diamond Head ||| Oahu Family Photography

We finally did the Diamond Head hike last weekend. We laugh at ourselves because we are big mosey’ers every weekend morning and don’t get heading outside until the sun is right on top of us. If we have no where in particular to be, we mosey in the morning, lollygagging, cuddling on the sofa watching morning cartoons with the kids. David works hard all week and the kids and I are usually on the go doing house chores, running errands, practicing addition and multiplication, reading our books or journaling (yes, I make the kids keep up with their brain activities during the summer)… so when Dad is home, we take advantage of it.

On this morning, we finally made it out the door, the sun right on top of us. I’ve been wanting to hike up here for a few months now so I was excited that we were finally going to get up top that old volcano. We realize that it would probably would have been better to leave the house earlier in the morning, but it’s all good, no worries.

 iPhone Snap

Armed with our bottled waters and parasols.. we were set. I got these parasols in California and have not seen them for sale here!  I always get asked where I bought them.  Imagine that. So I asked my mom to mail me a couple more. The parasols have been life savers here shielding us from the sun… when you can’t be under shade.. bring it with you! We got a lot of envious looks going up and down the hike.

That’s my 11 year old climbing the steep steps. She counted 100 steps! The trail itself is a zig zag with an incline to the top. It wasn’t crowded for a Saturday and it wasn’t too terribly hot. It’s actually a great workout! You just have to take it slow and steady, take it at your pace, bring plenty of water and stop when you need to rest.  I think it’s about 45 minutes up and 45 minutes down.

My little guy was starting to complain… he just wanted to make it up to the top, but mamma wanted to take pictures!   He’d slow down, then as if someone pressed his turbo boost, he’d be sprinting ahead of us.

There are a few vantage point lookout stops along the way. This is the view looking to the east and I think that is Koko Head. I could be wrong.. but I know for certain that the views are just beautiful!   There is a point where you can go straight up the stairs, in the shade, in the semi-dark, through an old military bunker and onto another set of spiral stairs leading you up or you can stay outside and take the paved walkway that zig zags to the top. We chose to go straight up through the bunker.

When you reach the top, it’s spectacular. The panoramic views are just amazing. It really took my breath away.

This one above and this one below, courtesy of David.

We are used to seeing Waikiki to the east of us.. so seeing it to the west was really different. It can get a little crowded up there and I was just afraid one of my kids was going to fall over the volcano… Nervous mamma as always.  The photos really don’t do the experience justice, you just have to go see for yourself what all the hubbub is about.

 iPhone Snap

My M reading the informational signs… she really loves Hawaii and wants to know everything!

Glad for the random stranger who took this family shot for us.
Another item checked off the bucket list!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy my blog!

Enjoy your Monday!

Much aloha,

~j