Makua Keaau Forest Reserve
Managed by State of Hawaii
4 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: The Eloquent Peasant · CC BY-SA 4.0B+Outdoors
Outdoors in Makaha
31% of Makaha’s land is conserved: 537 acres
93% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 46 acres are parks and preserves, 4.6 per 1,000 residents. 0.8 miles of mapped trail cross Makaha, 0.3 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 70% of U.S. towns · #41 of 93 in Hawaii. What drives it
Conserved land
31%
537 acres · of 2.7 sq mi of land
Trails
0.8 mi
0.3 per sq mi of land
Park land
46 ac
4.6 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
93%
of residents within ½ mile
Highest peak
171 ft
Mauna Lahilahi
What kind of outdoors town is Makaha?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Makaha have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Makaha is ahead of 70% of U.S. towns, #41 of 93 in Hawaii. Conserved land holds the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.
B+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Makaha’s overall grade.
Conserved land31% of the land · typical HI town 14% · U.S. 4%ATrails0.3 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (1 mi) · HI 0.5 · U.S. 0.4B−Park land4.6 acres of park per 1,000 residents (46 acres) · HI 4 · U.S. 13CParks close to home93% of residents within a half mile of a park · HI 83% · U.S. 72%A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 70%
LessMore
Hawaii towns of 2,500+ (93)Ahead of 57%
Hawaii towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 14%; the U.S., 4%), so Makaha’s 31% is ahead of 80% of Hawaii towns, while its trails per square mile lead 27% of them.
Water is more than half of Makaha’s area (3 of 6 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 15%.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
The map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Who protects it
537 conserved acres
31% of Makaha’s land. Water is left out: Makaha has 2.7 square miles of land and 2.9 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Makaha’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
County513 ac
Town or city43 ac
State Department of Land23 ac
Local Other or Unknown · 499 acLocal Park · 57 acState Resource Management Area · 23 ac
Good to know
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 7 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| County Land Local Other or Unknown Local Other or Unknown | County | 499 | Unknown |
| State Department of Land State Resource Management Area State Resource Management Area | State Department of Land | 23 | Open |
| Makaha Beach Park Local Park | Town or city | 21 | Open |
| Shoreline Local Park | County | 14 | Open |
| Mauna Lahilahi Beach Park Local Park | Town or city | 12 | Open |
| Mauna Lahilahi Botanical Garden Local Park | Town or city | 7 | Open |
| Makaha Community Park Local Park | Town or city | 4 | Open |
Things to do
11 places to go in Makaha
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Beaches in Makaha
Aki's Beach
DirectionsMākaha Beach
DirectionsPlus 5 beaches without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
Playgrounds in Makaha
3 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Peaks in Makaha
Mauna Lahilahi171 ft elevation
DirectionsBiking & sports
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Courts & fields
4Tennis
2Basketball
1Football
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Makaha: April to August
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 11.0 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 12.6 | 13.2 | 13.4 | 13.3 | 12.9 | 12.2 | 11.6 | 11.1 | 10.8 |
| High (°F) | 79 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 82 | 83 | 85 | 86 | 85 | 85 | 82 | 80 |
| Rain (in) | 3.2 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 3.2 |
July is the driest month (0.5 in) and August the warmest (highs of 86 °F). 3.2 inches fall in December, the wettest month. The climate in Makaha →
Next door
Makaha and its neighbors
Makaha has the second most mapped trails of the 3 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved of land | Trail mi per sq mi | Park acres per 1,000 | Near a park ½ mile | Outdoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makaha | 31% | 0.3 | 5 | 93% | B+ |
| Makaha Valley | — not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town | ||||
| Waianae | 31% | 0.9 | 6 | 83% | A− |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Makaha
How much of Makaha is conserved land?
31% of its land, against a typical 14% for a Hawaii town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Makaha’s trails?
Makua Keaau Forest Reserve and Makaha Community Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Makaha?
10,564 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Makaha or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 66 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Makaha have?
Ahead of 70% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #41 of 93 in Hawaii. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Makaha neighbors.
Share a tip
Sources
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →