How to Find Ancient Hawaiian Petroglyphs on Oahu (Plus 2 Hidden Waterfalls!)

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One of the items on our Hawaii Bucket List is to see some of the ancient Hawaiian historic sites. While the Big Island has thousands of them, it is much harder to find petroglyphs on Oahu.

To my knowledge, there are 3 known petroglyph sites on Oahu:

Nu’uanu Memorial Park
Pokai Bay in Waianae
Pupukea Beach on the North Shore

The only ancient carvings that aren’t sometimes covered by water or sand are the ones at Nu’uanu Memorial Park. So, those are the ones we went to see.

Not only does this short trail (0.5 mile) lead you to 2 petroglyph sites, but you’ll also find 2 beautiful waterfalls!

Here is how we found petroglyphs on Oahu:

(There are thousands of petroglyphs on the Big Island. One of the biggest petroglyph fields in the state is located at Volcanoes National Park.)

How to Get There

To find the petroglyphs, you first have to make your way to Nu’uanu Memorial Park.

Address: 2233 Nu’uanu Ave. Honolulu, HI 96817

Once you enter the cemetery, drive all the way through it. You’ll drive around a decorative gazebo that makes a kind of roundabout, then head down the hill to a parking lot.

When heading down the hill, the trailhead will be on the left.

**Note: There was a funeral service happening the day that we visited the site. We weren’t allowed to park in the parking lot, but instead had to find street parking and walk in.**

The Kapena Falls trailhead. — *(The beginning of the trail is on the left side of the parking lot.)*

How to Find Petroglyphs on Oahu

Site 1

As soon as you start on the trail, there is a big rock face to your left. A smaller rock sits at the base of it with an old sign on it. It’s hard to tell everything the sign says, but the gist of it is “No touching and respect this space.”

Right above this sign are some petroglyphs on the rock face!

I’m not sure if they’re ‘real’ petroglyphs, since they’re not fenced off and protected. However, if they’re not the real thing, they are very convincing.

*(When you see this sign, look at the rock wall directly in front of you.)*

Petroglyphs on Oahu at the Nu'uanu site. — *(This human figure was easy to spot.)*

Dog figure from the Nu'uanu petroglyphs on Oahu. — *(The dog figure was harder to find, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it!)*

Site 2

The second site is not obvious and takes a little bit of investigating to find.

Maybe 20-30 feet further up the trail, there will be an opening in the rock face to your left. There are lots of big rocks that you have to climb on. Once you’re a few feet up, you’ll see a shadowed cave.

There are lots of roots coming down from the trees above, and there is also rebar to prevent you from fully entering the cave.

That’s where the next set of petroglyphs are!

How to find Petroglyphs on Oahu — *(The second site is literally within view of the parking lot.)*

*(This is what the ‘opening in the rock face’ looks like from the trail.* *You can see the mouth of the cave behind my daughter.)*

You can find ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs in this cave in Honolulu. — *(The opening to see the petroglyphs is pretty small. My husband and I could both squat there to look around, but I would say to only go 2 at a time.)*

The petroglyphs at this site are much more obvious. However, the site was vandalized at some point, and it’s harder to find them among all the other crap that’s been scratched into the rock.

You’ll definitely need a flashlight and a selfie stick to get a good picture or video. We didn’t have either with us. So, I used the flashlight on my phone while my husband snapped some pictures with his.

You can find ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs in Honolulu. — *(When we were there at the cave, we could only see the big white human figure, but after looking at this picture, I see at least 3 figures!)*

Hunting for ancient petroglyphs in Honolulu, Hawaii. — *(Who knew that you could find ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs in the middle of Honolulu?)*

Site 3

The third site is very easy to find.

Continue walking down the trail. The stream will be on your right, and you will eventually see another rebar cage on your left.

Inside the protected area, there is another very apparent human and dog figure. There is a second human figure that is less obvious in person to the right.

Petroglyphs behind the Nu'uanu Memorial Park. — *(The rebar cage protecting the petroglyphs.)*

*(The bottom human figure and the dog were obvious to me, but I didn’t notice the human figure at the top right until looking at my pictures after we left.)*

Site 4?

According to the internet, there is a 4th site of petroglyphs at this location.

In the comments of this YouTube video, a commenter states: “It’s in a hard to access location and not at all on the trail. You have to scale the cliffside from the cemetery above. There is a rebar cage around it.”

And another commenter follows up with: “This advice was golden, thanks. Anyone else in the cemetery look for the gap between the hedge and the wall.“

Apparently, the 4th site of petroglyphs has several warrior figures and dogs. They look really cool in the video, but I had all the rock climbing I could handle with the second site.

Kapena Falls

In addition to finding ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs on Oahu, this trail also has two beautiful waterfalls! The Nu’uanu Stream runs alongside the trail. You’ll have to stop and admire the waterfalls while you’re there.

The first waterfall you’ll see is small, and the pool that it flows into is also small. In two different articles I read, this waterfall was referred to as Alapena Falls. However, other articles don’t name this waterfall and refer to the pool at the base of the bigger waterfall as Alapena Pool. So, I’m not sure which is correct?

Kapena Falls in Honolulu. — *(The first waterfall.)*

Small unnamed waterfall in Honolulu. — *(This little waterfall area is unnamed, but it is beautiful.)*

The final waterfall on the trail is Kapena Falls. It is the largest waterfall, and the pool it flows into is large and deep enough to swim in.

In fact, there were people jumping from the rocks and swimming when we were there.

(If you’re looking for bigger waterfalls on Oahu that still have a short hike, check out this post: 3 Short Waterfall Hikes on Oahu.)

As always, swim in Oahu’s fresh water at your own risk. There is a chance that you could contract leptospirosis.

The Kapena Falls trail is only 0.5 miles in length. It is almost impossible to get lost, and it takes you right by the most obvious petroglyph site (Site 3).

While the cave drawings and waterfalls were exciting, the whole trail is absolutely beautiful. The leaves of the golden pothos growing along the trail were as long as my forearm, the palms were lush, and the banyan tree roots were mesmerizing.