“We just wanted to make sure our kids and grandkids could do the stairs.”
It’s maybe the last place you’d expect to find an abandoned railroad track: running straight up the rim of a 1,200-foot-tall volcanic cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Clockwise from left, hikers and trail runners take on Koko Head trail on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012; an aerial view of the Koko Crater; a present day look at the terminus of the railway at the Pu'u Mai summit. “It seems like it’s just some railroad tracks and some rail ties all the way up to the top,” a hiker once described itAnd, according to the Honolulu Fire Department, a surprisingly dangerous one.Courtesy of Lena HaapalaBetween Jan. 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022, the stairs amassed 30 rescue calls to HFD, according to records obtained by SFGATE, more than any other trail on the island.
Hikers will only find one such warning at the start of the trail though: a sign at the foot of the stairs posted by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation notes the trail is steep and “not maintained” and you could be killed if you fall while hiking it.
Over the next three years, the Koalition would attend more than a dozen meetings with the Honolulu City Council and Department of Parks and Recreation pushing for a public/private partnership to fund the rehabilitation of the steps themselves.
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