The Awesome Beauty of Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
Written: Jul 18 '02 (Updated Apr 01 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Spectacular, natural and if you can hike, go in!
Cons: I'd rather not see a vendor at a lookout.
The Bottom Line: How many times can I say magnificant?
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| jo.com's Full Review: Waimea Canyon, Kauai |
Our 2nd island in our 3 weeks trip to Hawaii was Kauai. Day 2 took us to Waimea Canyon. I urge you, as I was urged, to get “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook Kauai Revealed” as well as the same one for the Big Island if you go and Maui, which unfortunately we didn’t have. The authors, Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman haven’t written one for Oahu yet. We did a lot of hiking and our vacation would have been much different without these books.
It took me awhile to understand that Waimea Canyon
is part of Koke’e State Park. The website is: http://www.llbean.com/parksearch/parks/html/10706gd.htm. "Much of Waimea Canyon is administered by forestry and wildlife agencies as a forest reserve."
The Canyon is a gorge and is well known for its similarities to the Grand Canyon. In fact Mark Twain called it “the Grand Canyon of the Pacific” because of the same type of layers that represent a different volcanic eruption and lava flow. Waimea Canyon is 10 miles long and 3600 feet deep.
Koke’e State Park also has a museum and a lodge. Koke’e is over 4,000 acres with about 45 hiking trails some of which head into the canyon and some are short hikes to overlooks. I mention this because I needed to understand what I was “in” especially if you are thinking of doing any hiking. You will want some good information which you can get from guidebooks (especially the one I mentioned above as well as Frommer’s which we also used.) For a donation you can get maps at the Ranger's Station which we went to as we left the park. More about that in a moment.
Where is it and how do you get there?
We stayed in Poipu, which is on the southern side of Kauai. Waimea Canyon is on the West Shore and we went exactly how Doughty and Friedman suggested we go. In case you don’t buy the book you want to take Waimea Canyon Road from Waimea which has better views than going up from Koke’e Road in Kekaha. Others may recommend that way hoping you'll buy something.
We went to 4 different islands in 3 weeks and saw everything. Because of that and the fact that the Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters, many places sound the same so I will be relying a bit on my own picture album to remind me of what we did as well as my journal. For example, it is suggested that you take a jacket, especially later in the day. I do not have a jacket on in any picture. I have it tied around my waist in one, but I wore shorts and a T-shirt and I was very comfortable. If your journey to the Canyon will be mostly in the car and onto the lookouts you may be a bit cool which is why the jacket is recommended. If you are hiking, you won’t need it.
About Waimea Canyon:
1. There are many lookouts to stop at. As I said some are a very short trip and all are handicapped accessible.
2. There is no charge to visit and it is open year round.
3. There are cabins and tent campgrounds, which you will need a permit for and that will cost you $5.00 a night. There are also lodges for as little as $20 a night.
4. One of the most popular lookouts is Waimea Canyon Lookout. The scenery is really gorgeous, truly indescribable unless you have been to the Grand Canyon. I noted a couple of things in the journal I kept about this Canyon (trying not to compare it to anything on Maui, but it is hard not to). At this lookout there was a vendor selling postcards and drinks. There was also a tour bus. This certainly isn’t the only place you will encounter a tour bus but it was the first time we had and it was the first time we had encountered vendors during out excursions in Maui. Another thing I noted was the amount of trash on the sides of the roads. I never saw trash on Maui so that was a bit disconcerting.
There will be many lookouts and you will be able to see the Canyon from every angle and at various heights by car. I also noted the amount of bathrooms here. Again, not wanting to compare islands, getting used to the woods was really easy on Maui but you won’t have to worry about bathroom facilities here. There were facilities at many of the lookouts.
5. This is one of the islands where many people say the expensive helicopter ride is worth it. We saw helicopters and they do get right into the Canyon. We also did, but by foot. If you can do it by foot, all the better and I will tell you which trail we took, but there are many, many trails and it took us awhile to decide on the one we wanted to take.
6. One of the reasons it is a really good idea to have at least 2 guidebooks is to get different perspectives. I found varying thoughts between the two main ones we used during this trip. One book, for example, said “On a wet island like Kauai, a dry hike is hard to find. But in the desert dry gulch of Waimea Canyon, you’re not likely to slip and slide in the muck as you go." Another book warned us that the “dirt roads, even when graded well, become very slick when wet.” Which brings me to clothes. I mentioned in my review of Diamond Head that hiking boots would have been a good idea and they would have been a fabulous idea hiking Waimea Canyon. In addition, although you may not want to bring a pair of jeans thinking you’ll be warm, if you plan to hike, bring them – and bring ones that can be thrown away because hiking in Hawaii is a dirty business!
Our Hike:
We decided on the hike on Canyon Trail to Waipo’o Falls. The falls come at the end of the trek and are actually on two levels. More in a moment. Here again we found differences in guidebooks. One calls this a family hike; the other calls it moderately strenuous.
The way we got to the trail was by parking at Hale Manu Valley Road and, unless you have a 4 wheel drive, you’ll walk 8/10 of a mile (and you’ll lose 240’ in elevation) to the trailhead. We headed to what is called fall #1 which has a pool on the bottom or at the base if that makes more sense. This was not an easy hike. Grab a stick – there are a zillion – just make sure it is a dead piece of wood – it will be much easier to walk. This is a small fall but it is gorgeous and the pool is cold so if you are warm it will be a refreshing dip. We just sat on a rock and put our feet in and then headed to fall #2.
This was a very, difficult hike. We did see a few children but, for example, my daughters would not have done this as children. If your children are great climbers and won’t get tired, they can do this. Much of the path is rocky, not marked very well if at all, and very narrow. These are not roads that are maintained by anyone. It is totally natural. You will be inside the Canyon with the orange and red strata surrounding you. Have I said it was magnificent enough times?
When you arrive at falls #2 you are actually on top of it. It is a fall that plunges 800 feet and when we were there it was flowing heavily. Apparently there are times when there may only be a trickle. Now the trick here is that you can’t see the falls unless you do what we did. Even if you don’t, the views are amazing. There is a natural arch made of lava that you will see and take a picture of, I promise! So, meandering on lava rocks and through and around some small flows of water we made our way to the very, very edge of the top of the falls. I never took the risks with my life as much as I did on this trip and it was worth it. If you go to the edge which actually, once done, was pretty safe, you can see the falls falling. You won't be able to see them all the way to 800 feet down, but you will see a good deal of them.
This 3.6 mile hike will take about 2-3 hours.
Heading back it started pouring. It may rain a bit in Hawaii, as people say, 'it only lasts a short while.' Well this didn’t. It poured and it poured for quite awhile. Luckily we were almost back to the trailhead once it really started raining so we were able to get through the mud which is what the trail becomes. Slippery like ice is a good way to describe it and you will find yourself grabbing on to tree roots hoping that they are secure. Poles do help and in fact we did see on other hikes professional hiking poles which really would have been nice at that moment.
Other information:
Waimea Canyon was not crowded. The tour buses may have been but in general, there were a handful of people. We were suprised to see as many people as we did on our hike but when I say "as many" I am talking about a dozen perhaps at various places along the way.
On our way out we stopped at Koke’e’s Museum and left a donation in the box. It is worth a stop to see how hurricanes travel, pictures of the birds you will see or may already have seen depending on when you go there and the names of the trees we saw. Hawaii has some great flora –I know little about it – especially poison ivy. I am not sure if that is what was everywhere, most likely it wasn’t but it is fun to be able to identify some of what we saw.
We were soaked and I would suggest during your trip to Hawaii always have extra clothes with you. You may decide to jump in a pool at the bottom of a fall or it may rain. I only had a T-shirt but at least I was ½ dry. We warmed up in Koke’e’s Lodge and shared (The food is very expensive.) delicious chile and cornbread. I recommend it. If the sun isn’t shining, you may also want a cup of tea. There is a gift shop here as well, but the prices are steep so unless you have an urgent need for something hold off on your shopping.
There is one more stop to make and that is at Jo Jo’s clubhouse where you will get the popular Hawaiian shaved ice. Here it is truly shaved. It isn’t just ice cubes chopped up. You can see it go through a special machine. Since I am now getting farther away from Waimea Canyon, I’ll leave our other stops to a general review of Kauai.
My final thoughts:
There won’t be much I won’t recommend in Hawaii (other than some restaurants – another review) and, of course, Waimea Canyon is a destination all its own. If you can do any type of hike into the canyon I really recommend it. I never did go into the Grand Canyon because at the time my then 11 year old was afraid to go down (Walking into the Grand Canyon was tame compared to this hike.) so this was a real treat. Remember if you aren’t mobile the lookouts are great and easy to maneuver so don’t let that stop you from this gorgeous canyon.
Don’t forget your camera, hat, sunscreen and bug repellent. Binoculars will be nice also.
Feel free to leave me a comment or ask any questions. Other Hawaii reviews you may be interested in:
Traveling to Hawaii on a Budget
The Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel
Aloha Airlines
Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast in Maui
Maui
LahainaTown Maui
Hana Highway in Maui
Haleakala National Park in Maui
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiian Airlines
Puff the Magic Dragon Lived in Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai
Poipou Beach Area, Kauai
Na Pali Coast, Kauai
Hideaway Cove Villa, Kauai
Royal Kona Resort,The Big Island
The Island of Hawaii - The Big Island
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island
Oahu
USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu
DiamondHead State Monument on Oahu
Polynesian Cultural Center,Oahu
Wailua River State Park in Kauai, Hawaii
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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