A Visit to Kualoa Ranch on Oahu

The long and rainy months in the Great Northwest are upon us, time for some armchair travel!

How about a trip to Hawaii?

We visited our two favorite islands back in September – the Big Island of Hawaii and Oahu – I’ve shared from both already.

But I thought Kualoa Ranch, a 4,000-acre private nature reserve and working cattle ranch on Oahu’s windward side, deserved its own post.

The Ranch is set at the foot of the gorgeous Koʻolau Mountains, the dormant fragmented remnant of an ancient volcano.

“What remains of Koʻolau is the western half of the original volcano that was destroyed in prehistoric times when the entire eastern half—including much of the summit caldera—slid cataclysmically into the Pacific Ocean.” Wikipedia

If you do nothing but gawk at the beauty of the Ko’olau Range, you do well. But it’s even better to take one of the tours into the valley, where you’ll get a closer look at the mountains, and no doubt recognize some of the scenery.

“If the views look familiar, it’s because Kualoa has been the site of over 70 Hollywood movies since the 1950’s. Blockbuster films such as Jumanji, Kong Skull Island, Jurassic World, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic Park, Windtalkers, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Tears of the Sun, and 50 First Dates have all been filmed at Kualoa. TV shows like Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I. and LOST have also used the amazing backdrops. Kualoa is known as Hollywood’s “Hawaii’s Backlot,” and has been seen by more than a billion people in all the movies filmed at the ranch over the past 60 years!” About Kualoa Ranch

Of all the movies filmed here, Jurassic Park is probably my favorite.

Did you know that one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, wasn’t meant to be filmed on Oahu? Most of the movie was filmed on Kauai, but when Hurricane Iniki hit, they had to relocate and finished up at Kualoa Ranch. (The heavy rain in some of the movie’s sequences was real footage from the hurricane.)

The valley where Dr.Grant and the kids ran and hid behind a giant log is one of the stops on the movie tour.

And also the site of Skull Island.

There’s a lot more to see on this tour, and there are other tours you can take, too. But that will do for now.

Now to get there.

The most direct route to Kualoa Ranch from Honolulu is through the Ko’olau mountain range.

But if you have more time, you can take the coastal route at least one way, around the bottom of the island.

We took that scenic drive another day – Oahu’s Windward Side.

Whichever way you go, I hope you get a chance to visit Kualoa Ranch someday yourself.

~ Susanne