World of Waterfalls Blog

Laie Falls (or La’ie Falls) is a light-flowing 15ft waterfall reached on a lengthy 6-mile round-trip hike in the Ko’olau Mountains above the town of La’ie.

The relentless climb up the trail seemed like it was never ending. I was starting to get worried that I might not find the waterfall as it had started to reach the two-hour point…

The Jackass Ginger Pool is really more of a swimming hole than a waterfall attraction found by following the stream after deviating from the Judd Trail.

This itinerary of our return visit to Maui took advantage of a couple of things. First, a friend of ours let us use her timeshare in Ka’anapali, which helped alleviate some of the accommodation costs (not cheap in Maui or in the Hawaiian Islands in general)…

Trying to kill time for the next flight I saw a picture book about the Big Island, which was the last major Hawaiian Island we had yet to visit. While I was busy flipping through the pages…

Hipuapua Falls is one of two major waterfalls at the head of Halawa Valley. It drops 500ft in a different drainage to Moaula Falls so it’s difficult to access.

This time however, the submerged rocks weren’t visible. I thought this was kind of strange and it immediately became apparent to me that the wide stream had risen…

Twin Falls is a set of private waterfalls that tends to be popular swimming holes because of how easily accessible they are and how welcoming the owners are.

Having been to the ‘Ohe’o Gulch (or the so-called Seven Sacred Pools) nearly four years ago, it was strange seeing the churning, brownish raging whitewater…

Punalau Falls is a hidden 100ft waterfall at the head of a tricky stream scramble upstream from the Road to Hana in Maui with a high risk of flash floods.

Puaa Kaa Falls (or Pua’a Ka’a Falls) resides in the Pua’a Ka’a State Park, which makes it one of the rare waterfalls where public access is actually welcome.

This itinerary of our visit to O’ahu was very strange in that it was made possible due to a raffle that Julie won from some kind of travel agent convention. It turned out that the airfare and car rental were comped, but the accommodation was not…

Likeke Falls is a pretty 30ft waterfall that was apparently the result of a broken ditch further upstream. So I guess you can say this waterfall isn’t natural.

a black SUV passed by us as I was looking down to make sure no sand had gotten into the camera bag. Apparently Julie was paying attention because she immediately said, “Honey, that was Cameron Diaz!”

Sacred Falls is hands down the most beautiful waterfall on O’ahu where the bottom of this 1100ft waterfall was once accessible along a trail in a narrow canyon.

Waimea Falls is a popular 45-55ft waterfall and swimming hole with a lifeguard reached by a stroll through a botanical garden in the North Shore of Oahu.

We returned to the car and headed back to the town of Kaunakakai. While we were there, we picked up some smoothies and pastries before filling up on…

Manoa Falls is a very popular waterfall reached on an hour-long hike through a jungle sprinkled with bamboo near the University of Hawaii inland from Waikiki.

Maunawili Falls is a small but popular 15-30ft waterfall and swim hole reached after a jungle hike with a few stream crossings that began in a residential area.

Kapena Falls is a tiny waterfall tumbling around 20-30ft accessed either from a cemetery (with Alapena Falls en route) or from a Pali Highway pullout scramble.