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Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area

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Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area 0:0

Address

http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/par...
99-1849 Aiea Heights Dr
Aiea Heights , HI 96701
808-587-0300

Hours

Every day 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Review

Passing through residential areas and driving up the steep winding Aiea Heights Road you may wonder if you’re going the right way when suddenly, the road passes through the entrance of the park. Situated high on the end of a ridge of the Koolau Range, Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area offers a variety of experiences including cultural, camping, picnicking, hiking, plant and wildlife viewing.

Upon entering the park, past the caretaker’s residence and information kiosk, you immediately encounter the Keaiwa Heiau. Heiaus are sacred locations of traditional Hawaiian culture and are built for many different purposes. Here at Keaiwa Heiau, you have an unusual opportunity to explore the location of a Ho ola, a medicinal and healing "temple with life." In modern terms we would describe this location as a university medical research, training facility and pharmacy. It was here that specialized priest Kahuna Lapaau would practice their healing and life preserving arts while also training apprentices in their seemingly mysterious, sacred, complicated, and often successful methods.

The stone walls of the Heiau were originally much taller and divided the areas functionally. Residences for the kanhunas, patients, and apprentices were located nearby while certain areas were reserved for the practices of healing. Surrounding the area of the Heiau, medicinal plants were tended in order to insure a ready supply while the forests of the nearby mountains provided other natural pharmaceuticals. Some items from distant locations were collected through trade and stored here along with specialized tools related to the healing arts.

Today, efforts are being made to restore, to a limited extent, the structures and especially the plants that were historically cultivated and available to the resident healers. Looking about the walls and sacred stones, the offerings and prayer tokens are a sign of the importance this site holds even now. As with all religious sites, look and enjoy but don’t be tempted to casually add any offerings and certainly don’t move or stand on any of the rock structures.

Following your visit to the Heiau, continue walking or driving the loop road through the park. You’ll find that it continues through cooling forests past campgrounds and picnic areas. Possibly in ancient times this entire part of the ridge was cleared and open to distant and panoramic views. Today the forest represents trees that were planted in the late 1920s and include tall fragrant lemon eucalyptus trees, ironwood and Norfolk Island pines.

Near the highpoint of the park road is a trailhead for the Aiea Loop Trail. This five mile trail offers a more thorough exploration of the local forests. Though not presenting any great gain or loss it is a sometimes rolling, root bound path that will present you with muddy sections when wet and at least one short stream crossing. Near the midpoint of the trail, native koa and ohia trees may be more apparent. You may also still see remnants of a B-24 bomber that crashed on this ridge in 1944, but the steep slippery slopes are claiming more of it each year. This can be a wonderful three hour outing for the slightly more adventurous but don’t wander from the trail, the steep slopes provide distant views and wonderful forest vistas but can be dangerous to traverse.

If you have the time and interest, camping at this lovely mountain park would be the ideal way to experience the setting and possibly allow your imagination to peek into the distant past. Even if you only have a few hours though, a visit to Keaiwa Heiau may imbue you with an unexpected feeling of renewal and health that it has, after all, been providing for hundreds of years.
Written By: Bud Hardwick
On: 7/25/2006

Directions

From H-1 west through Honolulu, exit onto Moanalua Highway (Hwy. 78). Take the Aiea cutoff and continue past a few traffic lights to Aiea Heights Drive. Turn right and follow it up to the end of the twisty climbing road at about 3 miles.

Features

Parking | Picnic Tables | Biking Trails | Camping | Restrooms

Map

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