Treacherous Cliffside Trail with Twenty-Six Switchbacks Along Molokai's Dramatic Sea Cliffs Providing Sole Land Access to Kalaupapa's Isolated Hansen's Disease Settlement

A narrow hiking path with weathered wooden railings clings to the verdant cliffside as it snakes down the towering pali (cliff) face toward the isolated Kalaupapa peninsula visible in the distance below. This challenging three-mile trail with twenty-six precarious switchbacks, descending nearly 2,000 feet, served as the only land route connecting the settlement to the rest of Molokai—a physical manifestation of the profound isolation experienced by thousands of Hansen's disease patients forcibly relocated here between 1866 and 1969.