Welcome to the Jungle

This is Ooma forest. It's about a 20 minute drive from my house at the 3,700 to 4,000 foot elevation on the side of Hualalai mountain, the mountain I live on the side of at 1,500 feet.Ooma is about two-thirds of the way up a 7 mile switchback road called Kaloko. I'll tell you about the top another time. I often take the dogs hiking in the Ooma because it's fairly close and gives them great exericise. They love to check out all the smells along the way of course. But Ooma has some trails that wind through basically rainforest, Big Island style, with gigantic palm plants, ferns and ohia and koa trees. It rains alot there, especially later in the day, like most elevated areas in Hawaii. It's like Jurassic Park and the trails are great for people and dogs. There are probably wild pigs that go through sometimes. In one area of the forest, there has been extensive planting of koa seedlings by the community. I did a story on it and planted a seedling myself about four months ago.