Into the Forests!

Some of our monks recently took a journey to the other side of the island and up into the mountains to Koke'e State Park. One of the unique things about the Hawaiian Islands is their temperate diversity. Drive a few hours and you can find a totally different climate. Up atop the mountain, instead of heavy, humid jungles, you'll find yourself in a climate much akin to Northern California or Oregon on a perfectly cool, sunny summer day.

One of our favorite hikes is called the Berry Flat trail. As you may have guessed, it isn't too strenuous, but it does offer berries and bountiful beauty. This unique trail boasts thousands of 40-150 year old redwood trees—an unexpected site on our island. This happened to be the perfect time of year too. Nearly the entire area was full of blooming ginger flowers, called Kahili Ginger. For those that have never experienced them, they smell kind of like tulips. So if you can imagine being submerged in the scents of tulips and redwoods, then you can get a pretty good idea of the experience.

Our troupe makes their way through these wooded giants

The blooming ginger plants are everywhere

Up through the trees we go!

Some are quite massive

Which way is it, right or left?

These gingers are indeed related to edible ginger, and have the same root structure, but these aren\

t for eating'

The many mosses on this trail are also quite stunning

That\

s not a lens distortion, this tree is just wildly bent'

tree foot

Paramacharya enjoys the silence of the forest

Minute microcosmic mosses

If you walk on this one with bare feet, it feels like a carpet

Who needs stairs when you can just plant trees on either sides of a path?

The roots make their own steps

We leave the redwoods and enter a sea of guava

A little bird watches us, curiously

Paramacharya explains that this is what the aadheenam used to look like. Nothing but guava trees.

This valley below is full of little purple flowers

These ones smell wonderful

a close up of the purple ones

And as a final treat, we find wild, white strawberries. These only grow just over a centimeter, but they are fully ripe and very delicious and sweet.

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