Reading the Land
Pōhaku, kahuna stones, kiʻi petroglyphs.
A walking trail in Hawaiʻi is also a reading exercise. The lava you cross, the stones at certain bends, the figures etched into flat pāhoehoe — all of them carry information. This page is a short guide to what they're saying.
ʻAʻā lava field. Wikimedia / panoramio.
Pōhaku · the rock underfoot
Two kinds of lava, two kinds of walking.
Hawaiian lava comes in two basic textures: ʻaʻā (rough, broken, painful on bare feet) and pāhoehoe (smooth, ropy, sometimes walkable in sandals). The Ala Kahakai crosses both.
On older trail segments, you can sometimes see where ancient walkers laid down smaller, smoother stones to make an ʻaʻā field passable — a centuries-old surfacing technique. Look for a corridor of subtly different rock and you're probably standing on built trail.
Stones · markers, walls, foundations
A stacked wall is never accidental.
Dry-stacked basalt walls along the Ala Kahakai mean one of three things: an ahu (a small cairn used as a boundary or offering marker), the foundation of a hale (a house platform), or the perimeter of a heiau (a temple complex).
The great wall of Pā o Keoua at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau is ten feet thick, built without mortar. Stones near the trail are usually smaller, but the principle is the same: choose stones that lock against each other, set them carefully, let gravity do the rest.
If a stone or platform feels charged, leave it. Many such places are still active in Hawaiian practice.
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau NHP. Wikimedia / Ken Lund.
Puʻu Loa petroglyphs, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes NP. Wikimedia / public domain.
Kiʻi pōhaku · petroglyphs
Figures pecked into pāhoehoe.
Petroglyphs — kiʻi pōhaku — are figures pecked into smooth lava with a smaller stone. Hawaiʻi Island holds some of the largest petroglyph fields in Polynesia, including Puʻu Loa in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (~23,000 figures).
Many fields recorded births: a small dimple drilled into the rock would hold the umbilical cord of a newborn, signifying long life. Others marked travel, ceremony, or simply presence — the human equivalent of "I was here."
Don't touch them. Skin oils break down the stone over time. Most petroglyph fields are reached by boardwalk for exactly this reason.
When in doubt
Walk lightly.
If you're unsure whether a feature is significant, treat it as if it is. Hawaiian cultural practice doesn't always announce itself with signs and barriers; the assumption a respectful walker brings is that the land is in active relationship with the people whose ancestors built it.
For more on how the underlying site was made, see methodology. For corrections, write aloha@alakahakai.org.