What a killer hike!!

Ive done Koko crater a ton of times but today i wanted to try something a bit harder soo....

heres the view of Koko crater from the parking lot. what a beautiful day!!

The dreaded stairs!! These things kill me all the time so today i hit 7-11 first for a big gulp!

sure looks like a long way, sure wish had more clouds!!

This is my path ill try do today.. yup, around the whole crater!! ive done the east rim once all the way to the golf course but never tried the west rim.

it took me like 35 min to make it up the stairs! or was it 38? it was super hot and dusty and i had no energy! Guess my spam musubi wasnt enuff power!!
 I rested just a bit and asked around if anyone wanted to try the east rim with me but no takers lol

heres a shot looking back towards the bunkers. This part is the only "tuff" part cuz the ground is just loose rocks/dirt so pretty slippery if u not careful.

a bit further down the trail. Not hard at all so next time u do the crater, at least hit the east rim.

view towards Makapuu. if u look over the rim u get nice birdeye view of blowhole and that curvy road.

a lonely cactus guards the trail!!

and yes, another view towards the bunkers. Its a pretty long hike, easy but long.

finally a change of pace, there are some rocks u have to walk over/around. nothing scary just great for a change.

Made it!! this is the opposite side of the crater!! Bet many dont see this view..After this i followed the trail down towards the botanical garden. its kinda steep and kinda slippery but doable

until u reach this part lol. the path was kinda blocked by all the very sharp cactus!

and made it to the gardens!! Since i didnt have much time, i passed on a tour of the gardens. I have a long way to go!!!!

if u follow the road past the plumeria trees it will lead u to the start of the west rim. There is a warning sign saying do go, u will die!!

there isnt much of a trail, just follow the mountain up and i hope u have on jeans, there are plenty of scratchy bushes and thorns to help u along the way.

Heres the start of the climb. u go from here up up and over over lol..

Some parts the trail is really hard to see, so just go where u think it should go and u should be fine. I was gonna use this as my make or break point. if i could make it past these rocks, ill go to top. if too hard/dangerous. id turn back and walk to my car.

I made it!! it was hard cuz i was already getting tired from the long trail ...This is a shot looking back towards Makapuu direction.By this point my water supply was going fast!! I had 4 bottles on my and 2 were drained, one was hot water and my emergency ice cold water(in a small cooler in my pack) was to be used once i made it to the top!!

Now its gonna get hard! This was the start of a bunch of rock climbing! Some i went right over only to find the "trail" goes around them!!

and there's my final goal!! But darn its a long long way and im pooped already lol..

this part got a bit hard/scary. U had to climb over some rocks with nice drops on both sides!! I even had to.... crawl!! haha glad no one saw me !!

I took a bit of a break to catch a shot towards Diamond head. Theres a nice drop on the right side so make sure u hang on to a sturdy rock! I had a few break off when i stepped on them.

Oh boy, the final sprint to the top! Im almost there! Once u past the rocky part its just flat trail which helped cuz by this time, i knee was sore!! Way to much climbing !!

Who ever made this trail is a cruel person!! after hiking so far u had to climb over THIS at the end!! I was at zero energy ... but, it wasnt that hard haha.
Whole thing took me about 3hours from  bottom of stairs all way round to the bunkers! But by now my poor knee was sore so it took me ..... 40 minutes to get down to my car!!!! But it was worth it!! An awesome hike that was a great change of pace from just walking up those rotten steps.
oo, and if u try, id go counter clockwise like i did. I couldnt even think about going down the west rim!!