Hawaii's Beauty

It was a rather warm day with almost constant rainfall but that didn't damper our adventurous spirits. It is a three day weekend for the state of Hawaii with Monday being King Kamehameha Day. We had yet to visit Waimea besides the occasional drive by on our way to another place so we decided to go check out Waimea Falls. Well, the falls turned out to be a conservation area in the Waimea Valley. The area had been deemed a park to gather funding for the preservation of both animal and plant species. We arrived pretty early so we got a spot right up front and made our way past the gift shop (all gift shops are the same here) into the actual park. The fee was small and well worth the conservation efforts. After grabbing a map for a reference, we headed out.

The path to the waterfall is roughly 1 and 1/2 miles there and back with the entire path being paved. This made for quite and easy walk and we were kind of happy seeing as how it was raining non-stop on us the entire time. Before we had walked 10 steps we noticed a path off to the side. Not sure if we were actually supposed to venture off we made our way quiety down the mulched pathway. After seeing lots of different plants we headed back to the bridge that would take us across the creek to the paved way. As we were walking along we noticed many paths that were mulched the same as the previous. Turns out there were many paths off to the side that could be taken if you were interested in seeing all the different plants in the preservation area. These paths were excellent and we got to see much more than if we had stayed on the paved pathway. Not many people were taking the side paths though which was a shame.

After not too long we came across an old Hawaiian village that had been preserved once the valley had been deemed a park. There were a couple of huts, one being the men's eating hut and the other the woman's. Above the huts were anceint burial grounds that were still in tact from many centuries ago. Signs reminded us of the need to respect places such as these because so many graves were being desecrated due to the growth of Honolulu and the island. There was an area called the Hawaiian games grounds that were available for visiters to try their hands at old Hawaiian games. We decided to give it a try and while Brian was much better at one I whopped him at the other. It is a shame that I didn't write the name of the games down to remember.

The paved pathway continues through to the waterfall. There are beautiful plants, flowers and trees everywhere you turned. It was like a little adventure with different ways of getting to the falls. Every side path held a different story and type of tropical, mysterious plant. We arrived at the last bridge which crossed the creek that led directly to the falls.

This was our first glance at Waimea falls and it was amazing. This was the biggest waterfall that I have seen since being on Oahu. The pool was very deep and was avaiable for swimming since there was a lifeguard on duty. I opted out of swimming because there is a little problem with bacteria in the water and many people have gotten sick from this. I have a cut on my foot and bacteria loves any open wound. It was nice though, to just sit and take it all in.

We then headed back the way we come taking various other trails that we had waited to take for the trip back. Again, many amazing flowers and plants. One trail went right by the creek and while it was a great walk, the misquitoes here were terrible...and huge! Many more photos came while we made our way to the water pools located at the bottom near the gift shop. Again...huge misquitoes!!! There were other types of plants in this area because of the pools. There were many other breeds of animals here too. One breed of bird was being protected here with the hopes of bring the numbers back up. A pair just had three chicks so it is looking good!

Overall, a great experience! This place is beautiful and you should definitley visit if you are in the area!