Hiking the Oneʻawa Hills Trail (Kapaʻa Quarry) via the Friendship Garden on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi
Distance: 2.5 miles / 4.0 km
While this hike isn’t particularly long, it can be confusing if this is your first time to the Friendship Garden because there are a bunch of unmarked splits, and the AllTrails GPS is not accurate to the trail’s actual location.
In this post, I’m showing the shortest possible route through the Friendship Garden to the ridge.
Friendship Garden Trailhead Parking
Read the warning notice below.
In summary, parking is very limited at the trailhead on Kokokahi Place, and you need to park your car entirely off of the asphalt. If not, you risk the chance of receiving a fine for obstructing the road in any way with your car.
Since parking is limited, I recommend hiking this trail early in the morning on a weekday to avoid having to park further from the trailhead and walking.
Google Maps Directions: Friendship Garden Trailhead
Hiking the Oneʻawa Hills Trail
Friendship Garden
The Friendship Garden is system of privately-owned trails on the lower elevations of the Oneawa Hills. The garden is definitely the most confusing part about the Kapaʻa Quarry hike, but as long as you remember to always go left when presented with a split, then you will hike through the garden to the ridge on the shortest possible trail (photos below).
As a side note, all paths that head uphill will eventually lead to Kāwaʻewaʻe Ridge (The Oneawa Hills), but they just add more distance than what’s posted above.
First Split
This is the first left in order to hike to the ridge on the fastest route, and it’s also the start of the lower loop that you can see in the map above.
Second Split
The following two photos is the second left turn that looks like it’s rounding a switchback. It’s also where the trail leaves the lower loop in the map above.
Third Split
This is the third and final left split to reach Kāwaʻewaʻe Ridge.
Once on the ridge, you can either go left to check out the view facing Kāneʻohe Bay or right to continue on the Oneawa Hills Trail (Kāwaʻewaʻe Ridge).
Oneawa Hills
Shortly after leaving the Friendship Garden, the trail will start heading up a steep hill. Wear good shoes because the rocks can be loose.
Go around to the left of the fence.
The trail will go up and down a few more hills that should be very self-explanatory in order to reach the popular Kapaʻa Quarry viewpoint.
At this split, the viewpoint will be off to the left. The route up the back way of Oneawa is in the section below. This is the trail that comes up on the right of this split.
Oneʻawa Hills Trail (Back Way)
Distance (Roundtrip): 2.4 miles / 3.9 km
This section is truly just for informational purposes because I absolutely discourage you from hiking up the back way. It’s significantly more difficult, more overgrown, and more confusing. Unless you have some desire to make an easy hike hard, then stay away.
This is the trail as if you had come up from the path on the right split in the photo above. The route I’m familiar with begins in back of the Hawaiʻi State Veterans Cemetery, but there may be others that begin off of random side streets.
In the back of the cemetery, turn left up this path leading toward the Oneawa Hills.
After the water tank, continue around the back side until you reach the section of Ironwood trees in the following photo. It’s definitely not an easy clear path, but if you want a challenge, I guess why not.
At this section in the Ironwood trees, stay directly on the middle of the ridge heading uphill. This is the best rule of thumb to hike to the Kapaʻa Quarry viewpoint from this direction.
The trail will come down this sort of switchback section before continuing further.
The further toward the viewpoint that you hike, the easier that this trail gets.
This is the same split from the photo above.
Native Plants on the Oneʻawa Hills Trail
Since the Friendship Garden and Oneawa Hills are a relatively low elevation area, native plants are few and far between. The only two that I noticed were ʻUhaloa and Hau.
If you’d like to learn more about these and other native plants from around Hawaiʻi, check out my separate post entirely about native Hawaiian plants.
Read My Separate Post: Native Hawaiian Plant Guide
