About four million years ago, two large shield volcanoes began erupting and forming the island of Oahu, Hawaii’s second oldest and third largest island. It took as many as 50,000 years, but when the volcanoes were done, they left an island with two mountain ranges that separate the east side of the island from the center, and the center from the west side, a number of deep valleys, and a perimeter boasting 112 miles of beautiful coastline.
Today, all of Oahu’s volcanoes are extinct, but remnants and craters can still be seen. First and foremost are the Waianae and Koolau mountain ranges, which are the very large footprints left behind by the shield volcanoes that created the island. Running parallel to each other through the center of the island, each mountain range has over 100 ridges along the top, which creates dramatic landscapes and lush valleys.
There are also a number of younger, smaller volcanic cones and craters that cane in full view today. The most famous is Diamond Head (Leahi in Hawaiian), located at the east end of Waikiki. A marked path will lead you to the top of this large, very dry crater. It’s just over a mile to the top, but it’s a moderately steep climb and it gets hot quickly. However, the view from the top is incredible. To the west, Waikiki beach, Honolulu, all the way to Pearl Harbor. In the other direction, the eastern shores of the island to Hawaii Kai are, and all of the valleys in between are laid out beneath you.
Or head to Kailua on the Windward (east) side and kayak, paddle or take an easy swim out to Flat Island, a small, flat (appropriately named) island less than a ½ mile from Kailua beach. It’s a bird sanctuary, so stay on the outside edge, stand on the island and take a 360° look around you. The mountains along the coast curve into a semi-circle until reaching the end of Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. Divers and other watermen will tell you that there’s a reef off of the base. That reef forms the rest of the circle, which makes another volcanic crater!
Close to downtown Honolulu, Punchbowl is another example, and it’s also home to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Punchbowl is covered in green foliage, a sharp contrast to what it must have been as an active volcano, and it offers panoramic views of Hawaii’s capital city and the Pacific Ocean.
Today, the results and remnants of Oahu’s powerful volcanoes are impossible to miss from any vantage point. Take one of many hikes through the Koolau or Wainae mountain ranges or up Diamond Head. Stand on the sand, look out at the ocean on one side of you and the towering, rippling mountains on the other. Drive the Pali Highway or H-3, both of which up, over and right through the mountains. It’s all here for your viewing pleasure, to enjoy, marvel at and reflect on.
I was fortunate to have spent my entire 4 year enlistment in the US Navy stationed on Oahu, and have many very happy memories of my time on the island – along with a memories that brought me sadness and grief. I suppose that is always part of the trade-off that life hands to people.
When I was younger, I used to like to think that I’d someday like to go back on a vacation, just to visit and see how much it has changed in the (now 46) years since I left. When I was younger and not making much money in my career yet – it was always a money issue. Could not afford it, and later, as my salary increased, it became a question of prioritizing how I spent my money. A trip to Oahu always seemed like a frivolous luxury expenditure. I’ve always been fairly prudent and frugal with my money and could never talk myself into going back. Then, I think that I might be disappointed if I saw how much the island has changed since I departed; perhaps treasuring my 4 years of memories and looking at my scrapbook of pictures I took while there, might be best.
It wasn’t until around October or November of 1976 that I finally got around to going with a few of my Navy buddies to do the Diamond Head exploration and hike to the rim. I wish I had done that sooner, as my enlistment was due to end in December of the same year. The view was incredible, just like this article claims. I also regret that I never visited any of the other islands while I was stationed on Oahu.
Believe it or not, I miss those ice cold bottles of Primo Beer that I used to buy for 95 cents a bottle!
The islands are truly a paradise and its a horrible thing to see such a beautiful state being under the iron-fisted thumb of Democrats. They ruin and destroy every city or state or nation that they get control over, and it pains me to think that they will eventually ruin the Hawaiian Islands.
Your article was ill founded
It was quite interesting
Until you brought in politics
Why take a story about paradise and ruin it
Instead in some other article or format
Go spew your republican lies
When we know that they are the destroyers of most every earthly thing
They can’t develop, own, or control
Thank you for this education! In the rumbling of Mauna Loa yesterday, I wanted to know more about volcanoes on the other islands.