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Manoa Falls Trail Manoa Falls Trail is expected to reopen to the public tomorrow after being closed for more than three months, according to state officials.
may reopen tomorrow
The freshwater pool will remain
off limits for reasons of safetyBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comThe popular hiking trial has been under evaluation and repair ever since a landslide near the end of the trail was discovered on Jan. 31. State trails specialist Aaron Lowe said the trail would be ready for hikers from "sunup to sundown."
"I'll be there to open up at about 7 a.m.," said Lowe.
Lowe said he was hoping to get the trail opened today, but a geologist is still scheduled to do an aerial check of the slide area.
Once it is open, hikers will have to forgo a dip in the freshwater pool at the end of the trail because it is too close to the area of the slide. For now the state is keeping members of the public confined within a temporary viewing area, outside the area where falling rocks and debris are likely to land if another slide occurs.
About 370 cubic yards of rocks and dirt slid down the mountainside near an area to the right of Manoa Falls. Department of Land & Natural Resources staff have put up warning signs and boundary lines to mark the area beyond which hikers should not go.
However, a DLNR memo states that trusting people to obey the rules will be re-evaluated "if habitual noncompliance with the access restriction is observed."
DLNR staff members are scheduled to monitor the slide area on a weekly basis for the next six months, complemented by a monthly aerial survey by the state geologist.
Three years after another slide, there is still no word about whether Sacred Falls near Hauula will be reopened. Eight people were killed and 32 injured by a rockslide on Mother's Day, May 9, 1999.
Several months after the Sacred Falls rockslide, a U.S. Geological Survey team said that the Kaluanui Gulch area where the falls are located, along with the neighboring Maakua Gulch, are both dangerous and should be closed.