Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Nanue Falls

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: North of Hilo, Hawaii

Distance: 0.3 miles of rock hopping roundtrip

Elevation Gain: none

Time Required: 2 hours (or more if you’re really enjoying yourself)

Red Tape/Notes: You’ll probably want watershoes due to the potentially slippery, rock-hopping nature of this mini-adventure.

What’s Nearby?: Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, ‘Akaka Falls, Umauma Falls Ziplining

This place has achieved a place on the “secret spot hall of fame”. It’s not really secret because it’s listed in Hawaii the Big Island Revealed, but we did have it to ourselves, and we will never understand why more people don’t go here. We actually went two days in a row – no people either day. Imagine the perfect waterfall, if you were Robinson Crusoe, or even Tarzan. This is pretty darn close. The catch is that there’s no trail – you have to boulder hop/river hike up stream to get to the falls. But it’s only 900 feet, so it’s not like you’re doing this for very long. And you reach paradise at the end – a lovely waterfall dropping into a deep pool, where you can climb up the rock face next to the falls and jump. Oh yeah, and you can also swim behind the waterfall. This place is so good, it’s almost not fair.

I want to go! How do I get there?: Take highway 19 north from Hilo to the 18 mile marker; just north of the marker, turn inland (left if you’re heading out of town) and then go right. You’ll come to a bridge stamped “Nanue” – park somewhere on the shoulder off the road. There’s a small footpath/trail next to the bridge that leads down to the stream, and after that you just head upstream in the river.

Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Nanue Falls