- Thomas Upton
Onomea Bay Trail – Short and fabulous
If you travel north of Hilo (on the Big Island) for about 5 miles on the belt road (Route 19) you will see a sign directing you to a “Scenic Route” that forks off to the right. This is a section of the Old Mamalahoa Road that travels about 4 miles through some of the nicest rain forest scenery on the Island. It is one of our favorite side trips when entertaining Island visitors and occupies a permanent spot on our sightseeing agenda. You will see many photos taken along this road in the Hilo Gallery.
A major attraction on this route, deservedly so, is the Hawaiian Tropical Bioreserve and Garden. It is a wonderfully maintained and well-documented botanical garden filled with trees and plants that you may not see elsewhere. This garden looks out over beautiful Onomea Bay, a crescent-shaped bay with several islands that is somewhat protected from the north by a large peninsula:
The Onomea Bay trail is much less well-known than the Bioreserve and interestingly, the trail loops around and actually through the Bioreserve. The trail is free and has a well-marked trailhead a bit south of the Bioreserve. It descends towards the bay, providing gorgeous cliffside views of the bay:
The first section of the trail is paved, short, and easy to walk. If you do nothing else here, make this walk. But if you continue, you will come to the Bioreserve, which is fenced off on either side of the Onomea Trail. Bioreserve visitors can pass across the trail to explore both sections of the gardens. Friendly security personnel monitor these crossings. If you are walking the Onomea trail, you have two choices at this point. A path adjacent to the Bioreserve forks off to the right (before the Bioreserve) and goes down to a tree-lined and rocky shore, where there is sometimes quite a crashing surf show:
t's a marvelous and jungle-like spot. When it’s calm enough you can walk out on a short peninsula and watch the surf up close. If nothing else, it’s a great photo-op for you and your friends:
After taking this side trip, you will head back to the main trail and can continue past the Bioreserve trail crossing down the trail to the shoreline. After the Bioreserve crossing, the paving ends and the trail can become much more muddy if there has been recent rain. Be warned (!) and make sure you have appropriate shoes. Often, some good souls throw down palm fronds to make it safer and cleaner to get through the muddy parts.
When you reach the shore, you will be standing on a tiny inlet. To your left is a very serene pool with a pair of small cascades pouring into it from within the Bioreserve.
To the right, you can look out into Onomea Bay and see the “Twin Rocks” just offshore:
There is a Hawaiian legend about these rocks involving young lovers that you can read about in many places, such as here.
Usually a small current flows in and out of the inlet that is easily crossed if you don’t mind some wet feet. The reward for doing so is access to another short peninsula that extends along the main body of the bay. There are beautiful views from this peninsula, such as these:
