Pohue Bay

Pohue Bay is a beautiful, small beach and cove on the coast below Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos, the southern subdivision of Ocean View.

Ocean View, in general, is weird. Spawned by two separate over-zealous developments, it consists of the upper Hawaiian Ocean View Estates (initialized as HOVE), and the lower Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos, both of which are massive developments with hundreds of miles of paved roads in dizzyingly regular grids, with only a scattering of developments among them. The original developers for each lost their shirts; the scale of the developments far outstripped demand for off-grid properties situated on moonscapes of lava. For years, lots within Ocean View could be had for a trifle; even today, properties within HOVE are listed for as low as $5000.

Both subdivisions – but especially HOVE – feature staggering climbs. In HOVE, the paved roads climb from the 2000’ Highway 11 all the way up to 5000’, where they form a border with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (but sadly, no public access into the park). If you want a burly paved hill run, you could do worse than picking a diagonal in HOVE’s massive grid and suffering to its top.

Ocean View also, sadly, provides an example of the restrictive land access for much of rural Hawaii. All of HOVE and Ranchos are “private roads”, so unless you have permission from a landowner, entering them could be considered trespassing. Pohue Bay itself is also private – despite being widely described on the internet with countless trip reports and videos, it remains private property, owned by a frustrated developer who has been stymied in their efforts to turn it into a resort by locals who want to keep the coastline pristine. Public interest in the bay goes back decades; locals have been trying to gain a public easement, but haven’t managed the political will to do so. Nevertheless, the bay and trails to it remain in limbo, with development held back for now, legal public access put off indefinitely, and regular visits by hikers and off road enthusiasts willing to ignore the fracas.

The access trail to Pohue Bay starts at the bottom of Maikai Blvd, and runs for just under 2.5 miles to the coast. But if you want to add a paved hill climb to the route, you could start anywhere along Maikai. The Hawaiian shield volcano’s shape ensures a steady and consistent grade as you ascend in the direction of the Mauna Loa summit a meer 13,000 feet above. The trail portion is mostly crushed a’a’ lava; difficult footing in places, but straight-forward enough.

The Pohue Bay beach is about a half mile east of the Maikai access trail along the coast. It’s a lovely brown sand beach framed with palm trees, and boasts as a regular nesting site for turtles. It’s important enough habitat that field biologists often camp on the beach to protect the turtles from people.

A second access route to Pohue Bay, found on topo maps as running contingous with the eastern-most edge of Ranchos, has a much stronger “private property, you shouldn’t be here” vibe; I recommend sticking to the Maikai Road side.

Charlie’s notes: I didn’t spend much time at the beach, not wanting to disturb any nesting turtles or their protectors; but it was beautiful from above. In general, I found this route to be a little uncomfortable; I’ve never been super comfortable being in ambiguous property ownership situations. I preferred it as a quick pre-dawn out-and-back.

Laura’s notes: We did this run as a sunrise out-and-back a few times, mostly because of its proximity to where we were staying and not because of anything remarkable about the route. The trail can be tough on the feet and ankles, due to lava cobbles, and if you start pre-dawn as we did, a headlamp is handy for navigation. The coastline and beach are picturesque and nice to see up close, but we didn’t dally.