The Haiku Stairs in Hawaii

A climb like this can be done via what locals have come to know as the Stairway to Heaven, or the Haiku Stairs, built in 1942 by the United States Navy to access the 2700-foot high ridge crest surrounding Haiku Valley in Kaneohe on the island of Oahu.

The problem is access, liability, and safety issues have kept the stairs officially closed for the past 20 years. At present, the City government has hired a private guard company, to the tune of $4000 a month, to post an officer at the Stairs trailhead to deter hikers and curiosity seekers.

Despite the security measures, hikers still manage to get past the guard and climb the stairs, which are tantalizingly visible to drivers on the H-3 freeway, a major Oahu thoroughfare.

Military jurisdiction of Haiku Valley and the stairs ended in 2000, and at that point the City and County of Honolulu took control of the land. With the vision of making Haiku Stairs available for hiking once more, plans then were made and approved to renovate the stairs, which had deteriorated and fallen into disrepair.
The local government hired a private company to make the repairs and spent nearly $1 million for the renovation project, with repairs beginning in 2001 and being completed a year later.

Plans to open the stairs for public use in 2002 were stymied due to concerns about wording of trailhead signage and about access and liability issues. Five years later, these issues still have not been resolved.

Many residents of the neighborhoods that hikers use to access the stairs have voiced opposition to the opening. Prior to the posting of the security guard, area residents said groups of hikers, upwards of 200 all told on some days, made their way through the neighborhood to access the Stairs, creating trash, noise, and parking problems.

Meanwhile, a non-profit organization, the Friends of Haiku Stairs, has been conducting quarterly clean-up and maintenance outings to eradicate invasive non-native vegetation along the trail and to insure the Stairs remain in hikeable condition.

John Goody, President of the Friends group, said he believes all the issues will be resolved and the Stairs will be open someday. "It's never going to be for mass hiking just because of the geometry of it, but for education and managed use, yes," said Goody.

When the Haiku Stairs will be open to the public is still in question. In the meantime, hikers are urged to stay away from the Stairs until they are officially opened. "A surge of illegal hikers is very detrimental to our efforts to reach agreements for legal access," said John Flanigan, a member of the Friends of Haiku Stairs.