Aiea Loop Trail Rainforest Hike – Oahu, Hawai’i

Aloha! Ryan and I are in Hawaii for Laura and Donnie’s wedding on Saturday, May 8th. Even though I love photographing weddings in Pittsburgh, I am totally excited to be working this weekend in Hawai’i– What a great job I have!! Ryan and I arrived a few days earlier than our soon-to-be-wed friends, and decided to explore Hawaii before we spend time on the beach with them.

We arrived here on Tuesday at about 3pm and could barely stay awake (due to the time change and our long flight) enough for dinner. On Wednesday, we were awake and ready to roll at about 6am (noon by our Pittsburgh body clocks). We decided to do a little hiking on the Aiea Loop Trail in O’hau.

Here are some of my faves from our 4.5 mile hike through the rain forest.

At the furthest point in the trail–really far away from civilization.

For two people who don’t watch a lot of movies, we sure had a lot of jokes about Avatar (vegetation), Harry Potter (vegetation again), and Twilight (my pale skin).  Way to wear a flesh-colored shirt for this one…..

This was an amazingly long stretch of elevated highway (H-3) running through the rain forest.

It took us over 2.5 hours to complete this hike, crazy because normal walking speed is 4mph and this was a 4.5 mile hike.  While hiking, we had 4-5 welcome rain showers and rapidly changing weather.  The rain was welcome because we were hot!  We saw a few other hikers as well as people who were RUNNING through this trail. I don’t know how their ankles survive….

We did go to the beach for a little bit.  Here are some kids body boarding near Shark’s Cove on the north part of the island.

Because we couldn’t get enough walking, apparently, we took a 2.5 mile hike to see a lighthouse near sunset.

These 3 gents were kind enough to pose for me….without even asking. 

As we crested the mountain, it was super windy.  Check out my awesome look..

Really, really windy.

There were probably 25 of these locks on the highest part of the lookout (?).

Here is the lighthouse.  It wasn’t accessible (?) but the views from the summit were great.

Good thing I didn’t do my hair this day (or any day since I’ve been here).  So windy and humid!

We are having an awesome time!  On Thursday we went to the Big Island of Hawai’i to visit Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park….more to come because that was even better!