One short paved loop near Hilo delivers bamboo, torch ginger and a 442-foot waterfall

It’s on the Big Island’s rainiest coast

You drive about 11 miles north of Hilo on the Hamakua Coast, and the road drops you at a 65-acre patch of tropical rainforest on the northeastern side of Hawaiʻi Island.

ʻAkaka Falls State Park protects two waterfalls, one at 100 feet and the headliner at 442 feet, both connected by a short paved loop through bamboo, orchids and torch ginger. The trail takes about half an hour.

What you see on it takes a lot longer to shake.

The legend behind Chief ʻAkaka’s fall

Hawaiian legend ties the falls to Chief ʻAkaka, a warrior who ruled the village of Honomu. He carried a reputation for strength and good looks, but guilt over being unfaithful to his wife ate at him.

Overcome with shame, he threw himself from the clifftop and became the waterfall. Other figures from the story turned into nearby rocks and smaller cascades.

In Hawaiian, the word “akaka” can mean a split, crack or chasm, and the gorge below the falls fits the name.

Bamboo towers 30 feet over your head

The loop trail runs 0.4 miles through rainforest so thick you lose the sky in places. Bamboo groves shoot up 30 feet on both sides.

White and purple orchids cling to tree trunks, and wild ginger fills the air with a smell you catch before you round the next bend. Ti plants flash deep purple leaves between clusters of torch ginger and hibiscus.

Every few steps, something new crowds the path, and you haven’t even reached the first waterfall yet.

Rainbow eucalyptus bark peels in living color

Some of the trees along the trail look like someone painted them.

Rainbow eucalyptus shed their bark in strips, and the layers underneath shift from green to orange to red to purple. Native ʻōhiʻa lehua trees dot the canopy above, each one topped with bright red blossoms.

Heliconias, birds of paradise and split-leaf philodendron grow between them. The area pulls in heavy rain all year, so nothing ever dries out or fades.

The whole trail feels like a botanical garden that no one planted.

Kahuna Falls hides behind the green curtain

Go right at the trailhead and you walk the loop counter-clockwise.

Kahuna Falls comes first, dropping about 100 feet behind a wall of thick vegetation that blocks most of the view. You catch pieces of it through the leaves, but it never fully reveals itself.

Keep going, and the trail swings around to a viewpoint across the gorge where ʻAkaka Falls appears in full. The water falls 442 feet in a single unbroken stream, more than 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

Mist drifts across the overlook.

A crimson honeycreeper darts through the canopy

Listen for the ʻapapane before you look for it. This bright crimson-red Hawaiian honeycreeper moves fast through the ʻōhiʻa trees, chasing nectar from blossom to blossom.

The Hawaiʻi ʻamakihi, a small yellow-green native bird, also lives in the park and tends to stay lower in the branches. Several dozen bird species have been recorded here, both native Hawaiian and introduced.

Geckos sun themselves on rocks along the path, and colorful butterflies drift between the flowers.

The Hawaiian happy face spider, with its smiley-face markings, lives only in Hawaiʻi and calls parks like this one home.

A tiny goby fish climbs 442 feet of wet rock

Below ʻAkaka Falls, a goby fish called the ʻoʻopu ʻalamoʻo does something that sounds impossible. This small fish, found only in Hawaiʻi, has fused pelvic fins that form a suction disk on its belly.

It uses that disk to climb the full 442-foot wet rock face behind the waterfall to reach its spawning grounds upstream. A native shrimp, the ʻōpaekalaʻole, makes the same climb.

Research from the University of Hawaiʻi has found that both species face threats from habitat changes and shifting climate conditions.

Paved stairs and no cell signal at the top

The trail is fully paved with metal handrails where it gets steep, but several sets of stairs mean wheelchairs and strollers cannot make the loop. Most people finish in 30 to 45 minutes at an easy pace.

Rain hits the area often, and the pavement gets slick, so shoes with good grip matter here.

Cell phone service drops to almost nothing once you reach the park, so download any maps or guides before you leave your car.

Honomu fits in a single row of old buildings

A few miles from the park, the town of Honomu sits with a population under 500. The name means “silent bay” in Hawaiian, and the pace matches.

Sugar plantations built this town starting around 1876, and what remains is a single row of old timber-frame buildings with tin roofs. Inside them you find art galleries, craft shops and small places to eat.

Two large banyan trees stand near the junction for ʻAkaka Falls Road and mark where you turn off the highway.

The Hamakua Coast drive crosses deep ravines

ʻAkaka Falls sits along the Hamakua Coast, which runs the northeastern shore of the Big Island.

The Hamakua Heritage Corridor follows Highway 19 for about 45 miles from Hilo to the Waipiʻo Valley Lookout, crossing bridges over deep ravines and passing old plantation towns along the way.

The coast pulls in about 84 inches of rain a year, and that water feeds every waterfall and forest you pass. The Hawaiʻi Tropical Bioreserve and Garden and the Waipiʻo Valley Lookout both sit along the same route.

Kolekole Stream meets the Pacific three miles down

The water that pours over ʻAkaka Falls flows through Kolekole Stream about three miles to the coast, where it reaches Kolekole Beach Park.

The county park sits beneath a towering highway bridge and reopened in 2024 after major upgrades. You can swim in the freshwater stream, but the ocean here runs too rough and dangerous to get into.

Picnic pavilions and grassy areas spread along the spot where the stream meets the Pacific, and local residents pack the place on weekends.

This ground is sacred to Native Hawaiians

Many Native Hawaiians consider the area around ʻAkaka Falls sacred ground. The park asks you to stay on marked trails, take only photos and carry out everything you bring in.

Climbing over barriers or leaving the paved path puts both you and the landscape at risk. No open fires or mountain biking are allowed anywhere in the park.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, manages the site and keeps the trail and grounds maintained.

Visit ʻAkaka Falls State Park in Hawaiʻi

You can reach the park at the end of ʻAkaka Falls Road, also known as Highway 220, about 3.6 miles southwest of Honomu. It sits about 25 minutes north of Hilo and roughly two hours from Kailua-Kona.

The park opens daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Non-resident entrance runs $5 per person, with children 3 and under free. Hawaiʻi residents get in free with a valid state ID.

Parking costs $10 per vehicle for non-residents, and the park accepts credit cards only, so pay before you arrive since cell reception at the site is limited.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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