Photo courtesy of David Concepcion on Instagram
The Haiku Stairs trail, also known as the Stairway to Heaven, is such an epic hike that it almost seems fictional.
Unfortunately for adventure travelers, the winding, narrow, steep (and illegal) steps that present stunning views of Oahu from Koolau Range may be a figment of the imagination before long.
Last week, a powerful storm ripped through the mountain, damaging the stairs and the surrounding plants and trees, making the trail even more treacherous to hike than it had been already.
Even before the storm, Honolulu's Board of Water Supply, which controls the Stairway to Heaven since it's on watershed property, had been wrestling with the idea of removing the trail. Not only was the trail deemed dangerous, but the endless parade also wasn't helping the area's quality of water and travelers were hiking through private property to get to it, alarming local residents.
But on Monday, the board agreed to spend half a million dollars to find out how to permanently remove the stairs after both the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and the National Parks Service declined to take over management of the trail.
The board had been seeking a way to appease local property owners while trying to avoid removing the famous steps completely, but attempts to find an agency that could better manage the area came up short.
The Haiku Stairs have sparked controversy ever since being outlawed in the 1980s. According to KHON2, the Board of Water Supply currently spends $167,000 per year on security guard service to keep travelers out of the area. Up to 150 people are caught illegally hiking the area per week, according to officials.
The Board of Water Supply said it would take one to two years to find out how to remove the trail.
Naturally, for adventure travelers, this is a sad time. The fact that up to 150 people are caught on the trail per week despite it being an illegal hike shows just how irresistible the views are for explorers.
On the flip side, local property owners that witness this many people stomping through their property each and every week are probably looking at the storm-and the Board of Water Supply's following decision-as some kind of act of god.
Either way, we still have Instagram pictures to prove in the future that the trail was indeed real, if not mystical.
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