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ʻAkaka Falls
A 442-foot plunge into a rainforest gorge on Hawaiʻi Island
ʻAkaka Falls drops 442 feet (135 m) in a single free fall from a lip of volcanic rock into a gorge carved by Kolekole Stream, on the rainy northeastern flank of Hawaiʻi Island. The falls stand inside a small state park west of the village of Honomū, about 11 miles (18 km) north of Hilo. A paved loop trail of about 0.4 miles (0.6 km) winds through a jungle of bamboo, ginger, ferns and orchids to a viewpoint facing the falls, passing the smaller Kahūnā Falls on the way.
Kolekole Stream holds one of the islands' small natural wonders. The ʻoʻopu ʻalamoʻo, a native goby, hatches upstream, washes down to the sea as a larva and returns as a juvenile to climb the wet rock face of the falls using a suction disk on its belly. A native shrimp, the ʻōpaekalaʻole, makes a similar climb. The falls are named for an aliʻi, or chief, named ʻAkaka. Hawaiian tradition also tells of a stone nearby, Pōhaku a Pele, which brings rain and darkens the sky when struck with a branch of lehua.