Hiking the Waipio Valley

I had not hiked the Waipio Valley in over a decade - and I had a never ending burning desire to hike in this remote and austere valley. I read about some of the magestic waterfalls that lay hidden deep in the valley - only to be seen by adventurous hikers. I zeroed my sights in on the famous Hiilawe Falls - a 1400 foot high waterfall at the back side of the Waipio. I knew that hiking up to the waterfall would be a challenge.

I studied a 1:24,000 topo map of the valley and even entered a few coordinates (including the location of the falls) into my GPS for situational awareness. We loaded up on water and my camera and began our hike down the narrow switch-back road from the Waipio Valley Lookout to the valley floor below. The hike down provided a wide panoramic view of the Waipio Valley - as you hiked further and further down the road, you saw a more expansive view of the valley, the farm lands beneath, the black sand beach at the mouth of the valley, and the steep trail scaling the north cliff face leading you over to the next valley, the Waimanu Valley. We spotted several hawks flying overhead, welcoming us to the valley.

You could see small houses and primitive shelters used for farming taro in the fields below. A river winds its way through the middle of the valley - probably fueled by water from the waterfalls. Once we got to the bottom of the valley, we turned left (west) and followed a rough road towards the back end of the valley. Towering fruit trees line the road and the plant life was vibrantly alive - you could smell the freshness and fertility in the air. As the road neared its end, we caught glimpses of Hiilawe Falls in the background and we knew the general direction we needed to go. At this point we wandered down a path (left turn from the road) and ended up passing by several houses. We continued and the trail for the most part ended, but by using the GPS we knew to continue. This led us through a set of taro fields - which are much like rice paddies, water-soaked fields blocked in by man-made walls. We traversed the fields and ended paralleling a stream in the forest.

Then the trail ended abruptly - in front of us was deep water at a bend in the river and on our left and right high, steep rocky canyon walls. We were at a bottle neck with nowhere to go but wade through deep water - my GPS said we were only 0.25 miles from the falls! A mere quarter mile from our goal and it looked unpassable - unless we waded through this deep water with our packs on and camera equipment to get wet, we wouldn't get to the falls.

We decided to turn back and hike down to the black sand beach and enjoy the sights there, a little deflated, at least we saw the majestic Hiilawe Falls. At the beach we saw the mighty Pacific Ocean waves crashing on the shore. Right here in the shade of the coniforous trees, wild horses grazed in the grass, oblivious to us. The raw natural beauty of the Waipio is incredible!