Maunawili Falls

Maunawili Falls is a small but picturesque and popular 15-30ft waterfall. We figure it's popular because it's publicly accessible and because it has a nice swimming hole that's deep enough even for some daredevils to do a dangerous cliff dive into the pool.

But its popularity belies the fact that we did have to do a bit of a hike involving several stream crossings and one head-scratching moment at the last stream crossing. And fortunately for us, we were able to get around some of the confusing parts by following some locals who knew where they were going.

The hike started in a residential area in the town of Maunawili. From there, we hiked about two miles to the falls crossing over four streams en route. We were wearing Keens so the stream crossings weren't really a problem (though open cuts and wounds did have the potential for introducing the leptospirosis bacteria; good thing we didn't have any on this excursion).

A couple of key points in the otherwise straightforward hike were the following. At about a half-mile beyond the third stream crossing, the trail climbed up some steps eventually reaching a bench at an unsigned fork in the trail. We had to turn left at this fork to descend the short (100ft) steep series of steps back down to the Maunawili Stream.

There was actually another unnamed stream joining the main stream, and it was here that we had to make the fourth and longest stream crossing. Here, we made the mistake of taking the faint trail on the right (prior to the stream crossing) and eventually ended up in a muddy bog.

Ultimately, we figured out that we should've crossed the stream and head towards the right bank (left fork) where we started to pick up the last 0.1-mile of the trail to its end at the Maunawili Falls.

All told, it took us about an hour of hiking in each direction.

While researching for the defunct Hawaii Waterfalls book project, I learned that "Maunawili" means "twisted mountain." And I guess it lived up to its name as the mostly hidden cascade tumbled down a twisted rocky slope before making its final drop. There were also scenic fluted cliffs (part of the Ko'olau Range) providing a good scenic backdrop for photographs when we reached the apex of the hike.

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