By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
The view from the old Pali Road trail (on the Kailua side)
Pali Ponderings
Over the Pali and
By Burl Burlingame
through the tunnel to a
Wat Dat-o-rama
Star-BulletinSure, the view is great from the Pali Lookout. That's why they call it a lookout instead of a "look out!" Although you really should look out while driving through the tunnels -- rocks can fall right down on you, one of the hazards of hanging around sheer cliffs. The site of the second biggest military action to take place on Oahu -- the other occurred in 1941 -- the Pali was little more than a twisty horse trail until a hundred years ago this month. That was when the engineering firm of Whitehouse and Wilson got the grand total of $37,000 to grade a road, a real road, over the precipice. This road, now quaintly known as "Old Pali Road," was rammed through the overpass with the aid of 17,500 pounds of blasting powder and 10,000 pounds of dynamite. During construction, workers found something like 800 skulls and other human bones at the base of the cliff, what remained of Kalanikupule's army after Kamehameha's troops backed them up over the cliff. The bones are now under the tons of crushed rock dumped over the side by the road construction.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Hunter Hoajlund, 9; mom Diane Hoajlund and sister
Haylery, 7, along with aunt Denise Luckenback fight
the winds on the Pali Lookout.
Whitehouse and Wilson's feat was marked by a plaque on the 50th anniversary of the completion of the highway construction in 1898. Yes, it took a whole year to build a highway over the mountains a century ago. Modern highways like H-3 take just a little longer. Wilson, by the way, was John H. Wilson, later mayor of Honolulu.The plaque is situated to stage left of the viewing area, next to a landmark boulder that provides a unifying focal point for historic picture of the area.
During the years, the lookout has been massaged into a tour attraction. There was a huge brouhaha in the early '60s when it looked like there would be a restaurant/
tourist park built at the site. Drawings of the plan show a theme-park atmosphere, with gift cubicles and an enormous statue of Kamehameha exulting bloody-handed over his vanquished foes. This didn't fly, and the area became the responsibility of the state parks system, who manage it today. The theme of this park is open air and unobstructed views, good enough for the site to be chosen one of Hawaii's seven natural wonders by our readers last year.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Jean Chur, Zabrielle Cerelejia, Sheree Twaddle, Gail Cerelejia
and Reina Nakachi walk toward the Pali Lookout on the
old, but picturesque Pali Road.
The biggest change by the state has been the creation of a ramped platform to provide a variety of viewing angles. It is currently painted a sticky blue-gray to cover up graffiti, although vandalism has virtually vanished since the state began locking up the view at night -- apparently vandals hate having to hike to perform their dirty work -- and the paint even covers up the honorary plaque put up 50 years ago.So far, nothing's been planned for the 100th anniversary of the spectacular roadway.
Although it's one of the best-known places to park your butt in Hawaii, there's precious little information available about the concrete love seat carved into the hairpin shoulder at the Pali lookout. The bench is just cast into place within an alcove chiseled out of the cliff face. Get benched
It's possible that the seat was created during the original highway construction a century ago, as the State Archives has photos of it that date back to the 1920s. As originally located, the bench offered a terrific view of the windward skyline, and a little respite from wind and rain, though not much. Wind-battered bees were more of a problem.
There used to be a header plaque above the bench that commemorated Kamehameha's routing of Oahu defenders over the cliffside. That has been stolen, according to the State Historic Preservation Division.
There is also a small cement stump jutting up out of the ground to the Kailua side of the bench, with four mounting holes in it. It's possible that this was either a survey marker or part of the protect railing around the old road, said Peri Manthos of the Department of Transportation.
The higher viewing platform built in the early '70s bypassed the bench for some reason, although it can be reached by doubling back from the old road. The view from the bench now, though, is of the blue-painted rough-concrete viewing platform, not the actual view.
Photos by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Traffic heading down the "runoff" area just past the
runaway truck ramp heading into the hairpin turn.
Reader Richard Smith from Maunawili was concerned about massive quantities of water that suddenly poured down the Nuuanu Pali hillside recently, creating a small landslide in between the runaway truck ramp and the hairpin turn/Mount Olomana lookout spot. "This is right on the edge of the earth slide that closed the Pali Highway for 24 hours or so about 1967," notes Smith. "Water has not poured down in this site in such large quantities since then. What is going on up above the highway out of sight?" Boulders crossing
After checking newspaper records, we can safely report that Mr. Smith is repressing bad memories. The Pali highway in that stretch was closed for several days, and there was not one, but several massive slides. Some covered all four lanes with mud and rock. The problem was alleviated somewhat in the 1970s by a concrete sluiceway built high up on the hillside that funnels rainwater away more quickly.
In this recent case, "a water spring opened up suddenly by the monkeypod tree near the top of the truck ramp," said Peri Manthos of the Department of Transportation. "It loosened the soil so much that it made a small slide, and made the monkeypod tree dangerous. We had to cut it down. Big trees like that get top-heavy, and their roots spread the soil apart. We couldn't have the whole tree take a tumble onto the highway."
Highways built right next to sheer mountainsides are going to get the occasional loose boulder. These are usually caught by the concrete "jersey barriers" that frame the roadside.
"You can't roof over a highway," said Manthos. "And the Pali highway is an example of 1950s highway engineering. If you look at a modern highway, like H-3, the protection gets better. You'll notice on H-3 that the hills are cut back in 'steps' -- this keeps loose debris from gaining too much momentum. Even so, on H-3, a couple of days before the race, a boulder the size of a Volkswagen tumbled right onto the road."
Over the years, a number of people have been injured by loose, large rocks hurtling onto their cars at the tunnel entrances. This reporter has a hardball-sized Pali rock on his Star-Bulletin computer that smashed through his windshield and completely through his dashboard in 1991.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Holes in the mountainside along the Pali trail
may be old blasting holes from original highway construction.
Leave the Pali lookout platforms, go right and walk down the crumbly trail of the old Pali Road, and tear your eyes from the magnificent panorama to your left and check out the always-wet sheer mountain face to your right. Scattered along its surface are dozens of neatly drilled holes, many in a pattern like bowling-ball grips. The hole story
Wat dat? We don't know, and the question flummoxed everyone we talked to. Some suggested that they might be core samples, others that they might be remnants of the old blasting holes from the original highway construction.
Peri Manthos of the Department of Transportation feels that they might be the remains of anchor apparatus for workers who built the original highway a century ago. They do somewhat resemble grip-holes for mountaineering equipment.
By Robert Wenkham, Star-Bulletin
The view from the old Pali Lookout, circa 1964.
About 50 feet townside of Morgan's Corner on the old Nuuanu Pali Road, check out the underbrush carefully and you'll find the remains of some lava steps. They disappear into the undergrowth. Some readers have asked about the spooky reputation these steps have. Fred Metcalf of Honolulu even described a perfect evening for a teenage boy: "Hit the Pali Lookout first, then 13 Steps and Morgan's Corner. If no one had curfew, (then) Tantalus/Round Top drive telling ghost stories along the way, "dancing statue' at Diamond Head Cemetery, Diamond Head Lookout, Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues to check out funny looking tourists and $100 hookers, then a few passes through Hotel Street for the $25 ones and the 'queens' before sleepily heading back ..." Step in question
We're not sure which part of that enchanted evening is the scariest. But 13 Steps, according to Honolulu spookmaster Glen Grant, has a fearsome reputation.
"When you walk up the stairs at midnight, it's 12 steps, but when you walk down, it's 13!" explained Grant, who once photographed the then-uncovered steps back in the Disco Age. "Now they're all grown over."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
What's left of the 3 notches at the top of the ridge used by
the forces of Kalanikupule in a battle with Kamehameha.
The Pali area has been featured in WatDat twice previously: More WatDats
The National Soaring Museum dedicated a plaque to pilot 2nd. Lt. William A. Cocke's record-breaking gliding endurance feat, and the sign is visible on the lower observation deck of the Pali Lookout. This plaque is part of the National Landmarks of Soaring program, and the Pali is only the ninth such site in the United States to be chosen. Over two days in mid-December, 1931, Cocke went aloft in the glider "Nighthawk" and set a world endurance record. It was one of many gliding achievements in Hawaii.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Plaque on the large stone wall at the entrance to
the Pali tunnel going toward Kailua.
A massive lava-rock blockhouse juts out of groin between the two Pali tunnels on the townside. There's a plaque on it, dead-center, that has become nice and tarnished over the years, the better to blend in with the moss on the stones. It's impossible to read from the road. But your brave, jay-walking Wat Dat Survey Squad reports that the plaque says, simply: Mark of Nuuanu Pali Tunnels
NUUANU PALI TUNNELS The blockhouse has doors, and, according to Peri Manthos of the Department of Transportation, it "probably contains transformers, something electrical. There's no need for anything else up there. The Nuuanu Pali tunnels are low maintenance compared to the Wilson tunnels."
TERRITORIAL HIGHWAY
DEPARTMENT
1956 -- 1959The Wilson tunnels for the Likelike Highway once had an office-like structure on the windward side of the tunnels, complete with big picture windows and what appeared to be a rest stop. At first glance it appeared to be a visitor center. But it wasn't. It was for highway workers to control the Wilson tunnels ventilation apparatus, and the "center" wasn't open to the public. Eventually it was closed up.
Atop the Nuuanu Pali blockhouse, almost camouflaged by branches, is a telecommunications tower that was added recently. "Federal standards mandated that radios and communications devices had to work in tunnels for safety reasons," said Manthos.
