Waimea Canyon
Red walls and green ridges a thousand metres up, on the dry side of an island better known for rain.
The west side • About 1,000 m • Two lookouts
Explore → Get Early AccessWhy Visit
The road climbs from the coast at Waimea to about a thousand metres and the island changes underneath you. The wet green of everywhere else gives way to red rock, and the canyon opens on your right: iron-red walls, green ridges holding on where anything can, and a gorge running down toward the sea. It is the one part of Kauai that does not look like the rest of Kauai.
A Little History
The red is iron in the old basalt, weathered over the five million years since the volcano that built the island went quiet. Rain off Waiʻaleʻale drains west through here and has been cutting the gorge ever since. Mark Twain is often quoted calling it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, which he probably never said, and which undersells it anyway: this one is green.
Worth Knowing
There are two lookouts worth stopping at and the second is quieter. The light is best early or late; by mid-morning the canyon flattens out and hazes over, which is exactly when most tour buses arrive. Bring something warm, because a thousand metres up on the dry side is not the beach you left an hour ago.
The Canyon
From the main lookout and the upper one: the gorge, the rust ridge, and the run down to the sea.
Closer In
The red strata and the green folds, from the same lookouts.
On the Way Up
The one roadside stop worth two minutes, from the pull-in and up close.
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- Go early. The canyon flattens and hazes by mid-morning, which is when the buses arrive
- Carry on past the main lookout. The upper one is quieter and the view into the side canyon is better
- Take a layer. A thousand metres up on the dry side is cold compared with the coast
- Stop at the red dirt waterfall on the way up. It is a roadside curiosity rather than a sight, and it takes two minutes
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