Hidden behind the Kings Shops in Waikoloa
Beach Resort is an ancient Hawaiian trail with carved pictures and stone
wind-breaks. Behind the shops is a path along King’s Lake. From the Kings
Shops, in the parking lot next to the gas station, the path can be taken to
Pohakulana Place, across from the Waikoloa Fairway Villa condos, where a
sign points the way to the King’s Trail.
The Kings Trail was built over
older foot trails in the 1870’s during King Kalakaua’s reign. It was used
to drive cattle through the rough lava fields from the ranches to the shore to
be loaded onto ships. It was built to be relatively straight and level with
stone curbs on the edges to keep the cattle in. The King used
prisoners and people unable to pay their taxes to build the road. A portion of the King’s Trail in Waikoloa Beach cuts across a lava field covered
with carvings and lava caves.
The Kings Trail is surrounded by the Kings Course of the Waikoloa Beach golf club. A short section of the trail intersects with the
golf cart road. There are no carvings on that section and it is easier to just
walk next to it on Pohakulana Place (which becomes a golf cart road) to the
next entrance.
A sign at the next entrance to
the Kings trail shows where the carvings and wind breaks are located, which is
quite a distance down the rough path.
A little way down the
trail, the path is so rugged and steep it is difficult to walk on. It is
hard to imagine cattle and horses traveling on the trail as is today.
During our trek the rocky trail was
difficult to walk on, the sun was extremely hot on the surrounding lava
field, and the wind whipping around us. Even with good shoes and being in
decent shape, it was a challenge to get to the point on the trail where the
best carvings were located.
Within a thousand feet we had
to start crawling on all fours to get down some extremely steep and jagged
drops in the “trail”.
We noticed others behind us
turn back after giving up on the worst hazard of the trail and we were
beginning to dread our walk back.
Finally we were rewarded when
the petroglyphs, circles, dots, and surprisingly letters, came into view.
The carvings in the pahoehoe
lava become more frequent the further down the trail.
The
most common ancient carvings are dots, holes, and circles. These markings have various interpretations including
representations for journeys and indications of children born.
More recently some names have been carved into the stone between circles and other designs.
Lava
caves and stone wind breaks are located along the side of the
trail.
The
path veers to the right at a “Kapu” sign on the King’s Trail.
Turning
towards the right, the path was well flat and maintained. It exited on to the golf cart
road.
Had we known
that there was a second entrance to the King’s Trail from the golf cart road
close to the petroglyphs, we would have taken that route and avoided the
troublesome portion of the trail.
It is an easy walk back to the Kings Shops on the golf cart
road. The only hazard was dodging speeding golf carts.
If you
are interested in the easy walk to the field of
ancient Hawaiian petroglpyhs, take Pohakulana Place (off Waikoloa Beach Road)
until it becomes a golf cart road. When the golf cart road crosses the
King’s Trail stay on it, go past the bathrooms, and turn left. The lake
should be on your right. Before reaching the maintenance building, you
will see an entrance to the petroglyph reserve on the left with a sign.
The short path from the golf cart road to the King’s Trail is well marked with
great views of the wind breaks, lava caves, and petroglyphs. Watch out
for golf carts and golf balls.
