Kauai East Side - Waterfalls and Nature Preserves

August 5, 2011, Kauai. Just south of the small town of Wailua, Hawaii, off the coastal Kuhio Highway, we took one of the few roads leading inland towards the State parks and forest reserves that comprise most of the wilderness in the center of the island. We were on Kuamo'o Road, in the Wailua River State Park. Our first stop was a lookout over the Wailua River and valley, next to which stood one of Kuaui's many ancient rock formations known as a heiau (place of worship). The Poliʻahu Heiau, where we stood, was a luakini temple, a sacred venue where native Hawaiian chiefs offered bloody sacrifices of humans and animals. Now the only offerings are spotted doves and chickens that wander the parking lot, so we went on up the road to the great Opaeka'a Falls, named after the shrimp that were once in the stream. We had to share the viewing platform with a bus full of tourists, so we moved on farther up the road, past a Hawaiian village on the river, past more modern neighborhoods, and into the Lihue-Koloa forest reserve.

Common mynas lined the road and we passed by a cattle egret displaying his rhythmically moving neck. The road ended in a parking lot. On the other side of a rushing creek, a dirt road climbed farther into the reserve. With our waterproof hiking shoes, we crossed the creek and hiked into the forest. My reward was a white-rumped shama and a good amount of beautiful trees. Had it not been for another creek to cross and a hungry stomach ready for lunch, we might have gone farther in.

Our last excursion of the day was to see the tremendously huge Wailua Falls. Farther south down the Kuhio highway, there is a turnoff on Maalo Road, which winds back north into the Wailua River State Park and ends at the falls lookout. The roadside lookouts are the closest views to these falls--there are no trails and no safe access. But they certainly were close enough. Only the photos can describe the magnitude, the power, and the beauty of this classic Hawaiian waterfall:

There were many roads in the east side forest reserves we didn't travel, and many more acres of reserves with no roads and no access. This remoteness keeps most of Kauai an unspoiled natural treasure protected by State and federal refuges, parks, and reserves--one of the reasons it was my island of choice.