Hawaii ... Diamond Head
State Monument
As we left Manoa Falls, it was still before noon
so we decided we wanted to go check out Diamond Head
Lighthouse. A quick web search with directions and we got to
the Diamond Head State Monument. We paid the $5 parking fee
and headed up the trail. One of us kept saying that he
didn't remember walking to get to Diamond Head the last time we
went there. We soon found out that we weren't going to the
lighthouse, we were walking up to the Diamond Head Crater.
This was formed a long time ago and you really don't get the
feeling for the crater, but you do get a helluva cardio
work-out. As it turns out it was only a few hundred yards
from the lighthouse, but it was probably further above it than it
was away.
Like Manoa Falls, this trail is 0.8 miles each
way. The distance wasn't the factor but the elevation change
sure was! The literature said that the round-trip would take
about two hours. We actually made the walk up in 35 minutes
and the return in 20 minutes. Marcia and Kristin could have
probably shaved some time off that, but they had to pause a few
times for someone else in the party. The guide at the top
told us that a Kenyan runner has the record of 13 minutes, up and
back. We did make it out and we can sleep on the plane
later.
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