This was by far my favorite Hawaii hike so far. I almost got too nervous to do it based on the reviews… many say it’s not well marked, and you lose GPS, and it’s muddy… but I decided with Brian and Jess along the worst that happens is we get a little lost and use our heads to get back home. I’m SO happy we chose to do it. The pictures don’t do it justice, but the waterfalls were amazing, and the journey there was awesome.
You start by having to go across a manmade concrete ditch, that was actually a bit tricky but do able obviously. There was a lot of downed trees and brush, but there were pink tree tags often enough you can find your way. Pretty quickly you get to this amazing bamboo forest.
Eventually you get to a split and can go left or right. Definitely go left. Somewhere along the way you hit a pine forest.
I was joking with them that this is nature’s botanical garden. Finally, we started getting close to a stream and more jungle-y scenery. The path had a lot of mud puddles. I wear spikes on my shoes, it makes me so much faster. They are supposed to go on boots, but I wear them on these because they clean easier. I just need to start wearing my boots even though they won’t stay clean.
Anyway, after only about 620ft elevation and a mile (which in Hawaiian mud turns out to take 50 minutes, seriously! It’s crazy) you get to this AMAZING waterfall. The pictures don’t do the height justice until you put a person in them.
These were sooo beautiful. And the sound they make!! So peaceful. There’s also a cave you can explore, but I thought I heard that it can be disrespectful to the land, but maybe I’m making that up. Anyway, you had to kinda rope climb to get up, and I wasn’t up for it. So I let Brian and Jess explore a bit and just snapped away.
This was such a great hike. There was parking at the pali lookout. Barely any steep scrambling. With my crampons I felt very safe. It took us a little under 2 hours, which isn’t overwhelming but not easy either. The navigating by following the flagged trees was easy. Bamboo forest was beautiful. I can’t say enough good about this hike. Love love loved it.
Here are a couple bonus photos from the lookout:
