The famed stairs that will be no longer. Photo: Friends of Haiku Stairs
As work begins to dismantle the Stairway to Heaven on Oahu, it hasn’t stopped thrill-seekers from testing their luck with one final illegal summit of the iconic hike. While some were successful in evading the law, many weren’t so lucky.
Of the hundreds of hikers who were reported to have been seen scaling the steep, 3,922-step stairway in the past week or two, so far, at least seven have been arrested while 56 received citations and another 60 received warnings.
On the popular hiking app, AllTrails, hikers relayed recent experiences.
“I did this hike this morning,” Rob Mattei wrote on April 26. “I was lucky enough to start it before Hawaii (Police Department) started their rounds. I was able to get to the top but was stopped by (the police) on the way down. They gave me a citation with two others and arrested two others that tried to run. Six officers were on site with two quads, one ATV, and two city police department vehicles. End of an era… RIP stairway!”
Another hiker, Sean Caven, wrote, “Have word from locals of police being 40 steps up and issuing citations. Local news (is) reporting arrests. Sad era for the Haiku Stairs. Attempt at your own risk.”
AllTrails clearly has the hike listed as “closed/private property.”
Another hiker, named only as “Jesse” on Island News, said he flew to Hawaii from Los Angeles just to hike the stairs one last time before the closure, but also ran into law enforcement.
“We flew in yesterday and got into Hawaii at 11 p.m. from LAX,” said Jesse. “We decided to sleep in our car overnight, park in the neighborhood, and at 3 a.m., attempt to hike Haiku Stairs.” While it’s unclear if Jesse made it to the top, at some point on the hike he was stopped by police and given a citation, which was said to be $1,000.
The World War II-era staircase has been illegal to scale since 1987, but, nonetheless, it has attracted hikers on Oahu looking to take in the sweeping views that the stairs provide. Accessing the staircase requires trespassing on private property, which has played a factor in the polemic nature of the issue. Over the next six months the staircase will be removed in its entirety via helicopter as per orders by the City and County of Honolulu.
