Mauka · forest
The dryland forest above the trail.
Above Kohala's leeward slope lies the Kohala Field System — one of the largest pre-contact dryland agricultural complexes in Polynesia. Some 60,000 acres of stone-walled fields once grew sweet potato, dryland taro, and gourds. The walls are still visible from the air today.
Beyond the fields, the upland forest belongs to wao akua — the forest of the gods, traditionally left wild and unworked.
Mid · trail · heiau
Moʻokini Heiau and Kamehameha's birthplace.
Near the trail's northern terminus stands Moʻokini Heiau, a great luakini (war temple) traditionally dated to ~480 CE. Just below it is the site of Kamehameha I's birth (~1758). A short walk connects the two — a span of more than a thousand years of Hawaiian rulership in a few hundred yards.
Open this section in the map →Coast · the shore
ʻUpolu Point — the trail's northern terminus.
Where Kohala turns from leeward to windward, the trail ends at ʻUpolu Point. Black-lava rock meets blue-water channel; on a clear day, Maui is visible across the ʻAlenuihāhā.
Reef · sanctuary
Where the Humpback Whale Sanctuary begins.
The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary's Big Island boundary skirts this coast. Coral cover here is sparse compared to South Kona, but the deep-water shelf drops fast — good listening conditions for whale song in winter.
Ocean · kai
Humpback calving waters, December through April.
Each winter, thousands of koholā (humpback whales) migrate from Alaska to give birth in these warm waters. From a beach at Kohala you may see them breaching offshore — the trail's first lesson in how mauka, makai, and the sea beyond are one continuous system.