Stop 6: Makapuu Point
The next stop along the coast road brings us to Makapuu Point, where there is a delightful walk up an eroded piece of the old Koolau Volcano. This walk can either talk an easy paved trail up the southern side of the peak, or a more challenging steep scramble up a rock face; both provide excellent views of the local area! From Makapuu Point we can look north along the axis of the Koolau range, or back towards the south and see Koko Crater.
This is a pair of views from Makapuu Point, looking north along the axis of the old Koolau volcano. The left hand image is a general view which shows many of the old lava flows gently tilted to the west (left) in this view. At right we see an enlargement of part of the same area, with individual lava flows shown by the different colored arrows.
Looking back at the northern rim of Koko Crater we get a very different view compared to the one we had from Stops 3 and 4. Here we can see that one part of the crater rim is very low. This is the side that was "up wind" during the eruption, so that as all the ash was blown "down wind" by the trade winds very little ash collected on this side of the cone.
From here you can continue on to Stop 7 on the ground.
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Author: Peter Mouginis-Mark
Copyright by P. Mouginis-Mark
Curator: Lori Glaze