Hiking the Mauʻumae Ridge Trail to Puʻu Lanipō on Oʻahu
Distance to Puʻu Kainawaʻanui: 6.8 miles / 10.9 km
Distance to Puʻu Lanipō: 7.4 miles / 11.9 km
The distances above are both roundtrip distances to either Puʻu Kainawaʻanui or Puʻu Lanipō at the furthest.
The Mauʻumae Ridge Trail to Puʻu Lanipō is an easily overlooked hike compared to some of the neighboring ridges, like Wiliwilinui or Waʻahila, but in comparison, Mauʻumae is a bit more difficult.
I say this because there’s more elevation gain and loss over the course of the trail, and Mauʻumae Ridge gets slightly more overgrown near the summit than the others.
Mauʻumae Ridge Trailhead Parking
Parking for the Mauʻumae Ridge Trail is located all the way at the top of Wilhelmina Rise on Maunalani Circle.
The trailhead is located at the upper portion of the loop.
Google Maps Directions: Mauʻumae Ridge Trailhead
Hiking the Mauʻumae Ridge Trail
The Mauʻumae trailhead begins between a couple of fences at 4969 Maunalani Circle.
The first part of Mauʻumae Ridge is very easy because the trail drops about 300 ft. in the first 0.5 miles.
Personally, I find this very frustrating since you will have to gain it all back and a lot more shortly after. For this reason, I don’t recommend beginning Mauʻumae Ridge midday.
The first photo below is at the top of the most significant descent, and the second is at the bottom.
As you can see, there is very little shade on this section and the sections to come.
In my opinion, making it to the bench on the far side of the descent is always a nice mental checkpoint.
When the trail comes to this larger erosion scar in the photo on the right, I always find it slightly easier to cut to the right through the trees rather than go straight up the exposed dirt.
Know that Mauʻumae Ridge does not always look this well-maintained, but when I took these photos, the uluhe had obviously been cut back, making the hike that much more enjoyable.
As the trail moves further up the ridge, you will encounter numerous steep sections, and the overgrowth inevitably gets worse as the trail gets closer to Puʻu Kainawaʻanui.
For these sections, I recommend convertible hiking pants, so that you can wear shorts in the beginning and pants toward the summit.
The pants below are my recommendations that hold up the best with the overgrowth here in Hawaiʻi, but with any hiking pants that need to be durable, make sure that they are at or near 100% nylon. This is really the most important factor!
On the upper elevations of the trail, like the sunset photo above, you can get great views of Kaʻau Crater to the west.
Puʻu Kainawaʻanui
The photo below is not Puʻu Lanipō. This is the Mauʻumae Ridge Summit (Puʻu Kainawaʻanui) or sometimes called false Lanipō.
True Lanipō is the summit to the right of Puʻu Kainawaʻanui on the KST. I took a picture of the start of the ridge in the photo below, but I didn’t continue any further on this day because the wind was tearing across the ridge line. It was some of the worst wind conditions that I’ve seen on the summit, so I decided that it wasn’t worth hitting a summit that I’ve been to many times before.
Native Plants on Mauʻumae Ridge
In the beginning of the trail, you can find native ʻŪlei growing all along the side of the trail.
After the dryer sections in the beginning, it doesn’t take long to reach a predominately native Uluhe, Koa, and ʻŌhiʻa forest that will continue for the rest of the hike.
The most significant native plant that stood out to me were a couple of ʻIliahi trees about two miles into the trail. Typically speaking, ʻIliahi grows in much higher numbers on the ridges across central Oʻahu, but this was one of the few times I noticed it on a ridge in the southern Koʻolaus.
If you’d like to know more about identifying these and many other native plants, check out my separate post that I wrote specifically to help others identify our beautiful native Hawaiian plants across the islands.
Read My Separate Post: Native Hawaiian Plant Guide
