Stairway to Heaven in Hawaii

If you live on Oahu... you have either seen or heard about this hike. 

(I took all of these photos off the web.. but more of my photos to come soon!)

Before Will deployed we had rumors of this daring illegal hike and we knew it was probably a must do before we move. From what I understand,  the Haiku Stairs were originally built by the United States Coast Guard to install an antenna on top of the mountain; the stairs were originally more of a wooden ladder and eventually became so dangerous the State shut them down in the 1950s... The State of Hawaii decided in 2002 to fix them up with and invested around 900,000 dollars. They never officially opened and since have always been one of the famous "forbidden stairs".  With Remi here it was the perfect opportunity to tackle the Stairway to Heaven and so our adventure begins...

First and foremost, this is not a kid hike. Uncle Greg had completed the hike a couple of weeks earlier and (very kindly) offered to wake up with toddler H. Yes, wake up. Since the Hike is deemed closed, we had to start our adventure at 2:45 am. Why so early? The state hires a security guard to stand watch who arrives at 3:30 am; oddly enough this doesn’t stop that many hikers (we saw over 50 people on the very narrow stairs!). It took us about 1.5 hours to climb up the 4,000 stairs and the same to come down. Stairs is a fairly lose term because in the beginning it is VERY vertical and you are particularly climbing up a ladder attached to a mountain.

Overall it is an amazing hike and I totally think everyone stationed in Hawaii should try it once. And I think once is enough for me. Ha.

You can see the clouds surrounding us in this photo!

Here are my tips and observations.

1. Do not hike this if you are afraid of heights. You are literally climbing the ridge of a mountain.

2. Bring lots of layers. It gets very cold the higher you go!

3. Bring a head lamp to see the steps.

3. Gloves are a necessity. We were in the clouds and the higher we got, the more slippery it got.

4. Make sure you are in (some type of) shape! It is tough work climbing stairs endlessly.

We were home by 7:00 ish and the little lady was so happy to be playing with Uncle Greg. Uncle Greg thank you SO much for watching our little lady. 

Later that day we had a birthday party.. here is the little lady in her "Birthday Party Dress". 

 

I hope everyone else had a fun, adventurous weekend as well!

xoxo,

allie