O'heo Gulch / Seven Sacred Pools
 

Hi everyone!

Do you need to do any hiking to see O'heo Gulch / Seven Sacred Pools? Or can you just park on the side of the road and get out to see the view, like I've heard you can with many of the Road to Hana sights?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Regards,

Ronna

There are decent views from a very narrow bridge uphill from the park, but the signage is poor. You can ask about it at the park entrance.

I'm assuming by "see" you mean "visit". : )

You do have to pull off the road. There is a parking area and a path that leads to the pools. The path is flat and easy to navigate and leads you back to the Sacred Pools. If you want to swim or get near the pools, you'll have to walk through and climb over some rocks, but still not a lot of hiking.

Swimming was not allowed when we were there because they had had a lot of rain; there was a sign saying that you could be swept out to sea and that sharks wait at the bottom of the dropoff - kind of ominous.

About 10 miles beyond the town of Hana, you’ll cross a bridge that goes over the pools at ‘Ohe’o Gulch. Soon you’ll come to a dirt parking lot on the left. About 150 yards beyond the dirt lot is the ranger station----the Kipahulu Visitor Center---where you can get information. (It closes at 5 p.m.). To the left of the ranger station, about 25 yards away, you can pick up the Kuloa Loop trail, a half-mile walk that starts through a canopy of some banyan trees. Emerging from the canopy, you’ll descend a gently zigzagging trail that cuts through grassy slopes along bluffs overlooking the ocean. Then you’ll arrive at a set of stairs that leads down to the lower pools of ‘Ohe’o Gulch. But sometimes the recently installed gate in front of the stairs is closed and locked. This is because some swimmers in the pools have been swept out to the ocean by flash floods. This even happened to some hikers when they fell into the swift flowing water of the pools. So the Park Service will close off the stairs if there is any high water threat. Here’s a link for information on other trails in the area….

http://www.nps.gov/archive/hale/page...s_kipahulu.htm

I suggest coming in the summer when the rains aren't as heavy so that you can swim in the pools. You can hike further up to a great waterfall. The hike is mild, but don't try and swim in the pool at the top. I believe it's been perminently closed due to some careless swimmers that went over.