Hawaii 2023 Trip
 Waimea Canyon

Previous Page                          Next Page

Kauai   Maui   Oahu
 

Keith's other trips

Straits of Mackinac    Kansas Travel

Kalalau Valley - Waimea Canyon State Park
Kalalau Valley from Kalalau Lookout

Sunday - Day 3

We had another early start this morning, taking advantage of it being Sunday to drive south through Lihue without morning rush hour traffic. We drove west to Waimea Canyon State Park and straight through to the end of the road to make our first stop at Kalalau Lookout and then to visit the other lookouts on the return drive down the canyon. This had been recommended to me online, and as we passed several beautiful scenic views, Linda told me the views better still be clear on our way back. (Fortunately they were:-)

Despite a little bit of clouds in the Kalalau Valley the view was beautiful, including Kalalau Beach, a little of the ocean, and a falls listed on the sign at nearby Puu o Kila Lookout as Nawaihiolomele Falls, commonly known as Twin Falls. Funny thing is a search of Google for the waterfall's name brought zero results with that name. Looking at the falls live, I didn't spot the "twin" in shadow to the right, but found it when preparing the photo for this report.

Nawaihiolomele Falls, commonly known as Twin Falls
Nawaihiolomele Falls

We drove back down the edge of the canyon, stopping at both marked lookouts and unmarked turnouts along the road. At the next lookout it was a little hazy and the colors were muted. There was also a trail head and I was looking to see if there was anything interesting at the start of the trail, where a woman told us that we could see some wild goats nearby if we went off the trail to the right. It was a very short walk and we found two feral goats along the top of the canyon. They were maybe 40 feet away and we had them to ourselves. After carefully taking photos, as we returned to the trail, I paid forward by telling someone else about them, but I am pretty sure he ignored the tip. 

The next stop gave us our first view of 800 foot Waipo'o Falls that wasn't from a moving car. It was far across the canyon and we saw only part of it, so it really didn't look that large, but at succeeding stops we got better angles of the distant falls. At one of the spots, I zoomed the camera in on a couple standing next to the top of the longest drop. When I mentioned it to the people around us, one party said they had hiked there earlier in the morning and that you really couldn't see the falls from that spot.
 
 

Waimea Canyon
Waimea Canyon

Wikd goats at Waimea Canyon
Feral Goats

Waipo'o Falls - Waimea Canyon
Waipo'o Falls

Waipo'o Falls - Waimea Canyon State Park
 

Waipo'o Falls hikers
Zoomed in to see hikers at the top of Waipo'o Falls


Further south along Waimea Canyon with Waipo'o Falls in the distance at the left
Previous Page                                                                                                                    Next Page

Next page
Keith's other trips          Mighty Mac Home

copyright 2023 by Keith Stokes.