Nu'Uanu Lookout at the Pali

On Oahu’s Windward (or east) Coast, Nu'Uanu Pali Lookout stands sentinel over the 1,200-foot (360 m) cliffs of the Ko'Olau mountains. As the mist plays across the Ko'Olau ridge line, Cook Island Pines can be seen growing on the hillside and a beautiful old street lamp rusting at the edge of the parking lot.

Two page sketchbook spread: Left, from the parking lot and right, from the lower railing

One of the best viewpoints on Oahu, the lookout provides panoramic vistas across the island. You can also see Chinaman’s Hat and Kaneohe Bay.

In 1795 the lookout was the site of a massacre, when King Kamehameha defeated the island’s warriors by forcing them off the treacherous cliff top to their deaths.

My sketch at the railing of the old road at Nu'Uanu Pali Lookout with a view of the Windward coastline. 

I stood to sketch on the path just to the right of the lookout where a sign warns “Road Closed". This had been the old road constructed in the 1800s, once the only feasible land route from Honolulu to the Windward side. Horse drawn carriages once traveled across it. I sketched a portion of the Ko'Olau mountains, the valley below and the opening to one of the tunnels which finally replaced the old highway in 1961.

Closeup of my sketch with Pali tunnel