ʻAkaka Falls | |
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Location: | Honomu, Hawaiʻi United States |
Type: | Plunge |
Total Height: | 422 feet (129 m) |
Longest Single Drop: | 422 feet (129 m) |
Number of Drops: | 1 |
World Height Ranking: | 612 |
ʻAkaka Falls State Park is a state park on Hawaiʻi Island, in the US state of Hawaii.
The park is about 11 miles (18 km) north from Hilo, west of Honomū off the Hawaii Belt Road (route 19) at the end of Hawaii Route 220, . It includes ʻAkaka Falls, a 422 feet (129 m) tall waterfall. ʻAkaka in the Hawaiian language means "A rent, split, chink, separation; to crack, split, scale".[1] The accessible portion of the park lies high on the right shoulder of the deep gorge into which the waterfall plunges, and the falls can be viewed from several points along a loop trail through the park. Also visible from this trail is Kahūnā Falls.
Local folklore describes a stone here called Pōhaku a Pele that, when struck by a branch of lehua ʻāpane, will call the sky to darken and rain to fall.[2] Lehua ʻāpane or ʻōhiʻa ʻāpane is an ʻōhiʻa tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) with dark red blossoms.
ʻAkaka Falls is located on Kolekole Stream. A large stone in the stream about 70 feet (21 m) upstream of the falls is called Pōhaku o Kāloa.[2]
Just to the north of Akaka Falls is the Umauma Falls, which is a snapshot in time of how Akaka Falls was formed. Currently, it is accessible through private property known as Umauma Experience[3].