Ho'omaluhia, the Most Beautiful Botanical Garden in Oahu, HI

The island of Oahu in Hawaii has many beautiful places and hidden treasures. One of which is the Hu'umaluhia Botanical Garden. The word Hu'umaluhia means a peaceful refuge and that definitely describes this place well. You may recognize these gardens from photos that you've seen on social media taken right here. It must have become quite a problem in backed up traffic because they don't allow it anymore so we had to fake it. Even though we're usually on the hunt for thrilling adventures, exploring the lush 400 acres of the gardens was a nice change of pace. We were also visiting with our family and they aren't super into sketchy hikes so it was nice to find an activity that we could all do together. And another benefit is that it is free to visit. There are several different activities that you can do inside the gardens and we're going to go over some of them in this video. The first stop that we will be making is the art gallery that's about nine tenths of a mile from the entrance gate. On our way into the gallery we got our first up close look at some of the beautiful plant life that they have to offer here. And we also got to check out a map of the gardens. You can always take a picture of this with your phone to help you make your way around. Unfortunately I pretty much paint like a preschool aged child so I don't think you're going to see any of my work in this gallery. But if you can paint as good as V you can enjoy art day here every Tuesday from 9 30 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. But keep in mind that you do need to bring your own supplies. After leaving the art gallery we were on to activity number two that you can do here and that is hiking. The term hiking might be a little bit of an overstatement here. It's a bit more of a peaceful stroll. The nice thing that you see about the trail right here is that it is right next door to the visitor center and we didn't even have to move our car. From the trailhead you'll be walking a flat and easy two-tenths of a mile to get to the lake. Not only are these gardens beautiful but they serve a purpose as well. Believe it or not they were built way back in 1982 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection for Kaneohe. Not only will you find beautiful Hawaiian plants here but you'll find plants from other tropical regions around the world such as the Philippines, Malaysia, tropical America, India, Sri Lanka, Melanesia, Polynesia and Africa. Now that we're at the lake we can talk about activity number three that you can do here which is fishing. You can only fish here on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can borrow bamboo poles and barbless hooks from the visitor center on a first-come first-served basis and if you're hungry and expecting to eat what you catch I hate to break it to you but it is catch and release only. We found another trail that circled around the lake and on the other side of this bridge we also found some tickle plants. If you've never seen tickle plants before they're pretty cool because when you touch them they close up. After the tickle fest was over we headed up this short and easy hill to a beautiful lookout over the park and here's some behind the scenes of V's fancy camera work. It's also up at the top of the hill where you'll find the next activity that you can do here which is camping. You are able to camp here throughout the weekend starting at 9 a.m. on Friday and ending at 4 p.m. on Monday. You do need to reserve a spot but you can find out all about how to do that in the link in the description below. We're now leaving the camping area and taking another short trail that will take us back to the main road. Along the way we ran into these orange and red flowered trees that were absolutely gorgeous. I tried to use the iNaturalist app to identify them but it came back with no results so if you know what these are please let us know in the comments below. And here we are back at the main road. If you do this route and you parked at the visitor center it's only about two-tenths of a mile back to your car. Along the way we found this large open grassy area and it totally reminded us of something straight out of the Jurassic Park movies. This spot would be perfect for the last item on the list of things you can do here which is have a picnic. Unfortunately we didn't bring any food with us on this day but you can bet that we will on our next visit. Our next stop will have us heading about four-tenths of a mile down the road from the visitor center. This is a short stop that won't take up too much of your time at the park but I think it's worth checking out. Here you'll find a short but pretty steep hill that will take you up to a viewpoint that lets you look out over the entire Botanic Garden. If you look hard enough you can also spot another Hawaii celebrity which is the satellite dish up at the of the Haiku stairs. If you haven't seen our video about our climb up the Moanalua Valley Middle Ridge click in the upper corner right now because that was a wild video. Like I said earlier this is a fairly short stop. We spent probably about five minutes up at the top and then headed back down to the car. Driving through the park is so pretty but the biggest challenge is that you can only stop in marked parking lots. There were so many spots where we wanted to stop and take pictures but it's not allowed. So if you're up for the challenge it's about a five mile out and back walk if you go from the entrance gate. This gives you the opportunity to stop as much as you want and that is going to do it for our video about the Huumalahia Botanic Garden. We're always looking for an excuse to get back to the islands so let us know what your favorite spot is in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video be sure to hit that thumbs up because it lets us know that you want to see more content like this. And for all the information about the Huumalahia Gardens as well as other awesome Oahu adventures head on over to thatadventurelife.com