Upper & Lower Makua Cave – July 13, 2012

I knew that there was a Makua Cave. You can see it from the road. However, ever since Nate Yuen’s posts a few months back, Oahu hikers now know that there is another cave further up the mountain.

There is also a trail that goes up to the Upper Cave, but it is over loose rock and you must know how to scramble pretty well.

Inviting me today was Christian and Merv. They came to my house at 7 am and I drove us to Makaha. We got ready and started on the trail to the Upper Makua Cave. It took us about 20 minutes. We scrambled up the mountain, which was somewhat steep. There were two caves. The caves were pretty big, nothing spectacular though. But the view from the caves was spectacular.

Christian thought the cave was bigger and didn’t think that these two caves were the ones. So we went further up the mountain negotiating this steep rock face. It was like Kawiwi because the rocks were really loose and the climb was steep. It took a while because I didn’t like any of the holds that were in front of me. But I can’t stay on the mountain forever, so I chose the holds that I thought were the best and got up. After looking around for 10 minutes, we came up empty. As we started coming down, Christian grabbed a massive boulder which dislodged. He went sliding down the mountain. The incident happened so fast that Merv and I couldn’t react. Christian regrouped albeit some big scrapes and cuts.

Going down the rock face was difficult for me, especially after Christian’s incident. I regrouped mentally and made it down. While going down, Christian got stung by a wasp. It was not his day.

After getting back to my car, we explored the Lower Makua Cave. It is massive. The ceiling is at least 150 feet high. The width is about 75 feet wide. We went in, but nothing there was great. After a short discussion, we came to the conclusion that we saw all the caves in the area and that there was no massive cave further up the mountain.

One day, I would love to take my kids to the Makua Cave. I’d think they would enjoy it.