Waimea Canyon State Park

Interesting facts

Waimea means reddish water in Hawaiian, after the iron-stained runoff that colours the river.

The red walls were once black basalt; the colour comes from millions of years of weathering of the lava.

Lava flows on the canyon's two sides differ: thick, flat-lying layers to the east and thin, westward-tilted ones to the west, split by a huge fault.

Geologists date Kauaʻi's lavas to about five million years ago and the great collapse that shaped the canyon to roughly four million years ago.

On clear days the island of Niʻihau can be seen from the road that climbs along the canyon rim.

The rare iliau, a relative of the Hawaiian silversword found only on Kauaʻi, grows on the canyon's dry slopes; it flowers once and then dies.

The Kukui Trail is the only path that leads from the rim road down to the canyon floor.

Why it is worth it

Fourteen miles long, a mile wide in places, and cut more than 3,600 feet deep, Waimea Canyon is what happens when millennia of runoff from Mount Waiʻaleʻale — one of the wettest spots on the planet — pours down the same channels again and again. The iron-rich volcanic soil it exposes gives both the canyon walls and the water at its base a distinct rust-red tint that's rare to see at this scale anywhere in the Pacific.

Mark Twain is credited with calling it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific," and the line has stuck to every brochure about the place ever since. It's worth knowing the quote is shakier than it sounds: Twain did tour the Hawaiian islands in 1866, but by most accounts he never actually set foot on Kauaʻi — so the phrase people repeat as his verdict on Waimea is closer to well-worn tourism lore than a documented eyewitness quote.

The canyon's shape owes as much to structural collapse as to erosion. Geologists trace part of its form to a large fault-block downdrop tied to the volcanic history of Kauaʻi's shield volcano, on top of which the relentless runoff from Waiʻaleʻale's summit kept carving for millions of years afterward.

Good to know

The main lookouts sit around 3,400–3,600 feet above sea level, where temperatures typically run about 20°F cooler than at the coast — worth a layer even if it's warm at the beach that morning.

Best time to visit

Trade-wind clouds tend to build over the canyon through the afternoon, so mornings usually give the clearest, least hazy views into the gorge.

Getting there

177 km from Schofield Barracks. Lihue Airport (LIH) is about 35 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, is a large canyon, approximately ten miles (16 km) long and up to 3,000 feet (910 m) deep, located on the western side of Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States. Waimea is Hawaiian for "reddish water", a reference to the erosion of the canyon's red soil. The canyon was formed by a deep incision of the Waimea River arising from the extreme rainfall on the island's central peak, Mount Waiʻaleʻale, among the wettest places on earth.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0