Ancient Hawaiian “Kings Trail” in Waikoloa Beach Resort

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.  The age of the earliest of the carvings is estimated to be 800 AD when the Waikoloa area was first settled.

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.