Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Boiling Pots and Pe’epe’e Falls

Location: Hilo, Hawaii

Time Required: 30 minutes

Red Tape/Notes: Wear/bring mosquito repellent if you want to go all the way to Pe’epe’e

What’s Nearby?: Emesine Cave, Rainbow Falls

Only a mile further up the road from Rainbow Falls is the parking area for the Boiling Pots, an interesting series of bowls carved into the rock in this section of the river. When the water flow is heavy, the churning of the water appears to boil. We haven’t witnessed this yet – both of our trips to the Big Island have apparently not been during heavy enough flow for anything even remotely like boiling. In fact, the water looked perfectly pleasant and calm. The area is still pretty, though, and we’ve enjoyed walking around. The trail to the right of the viewing area clearly sees a lot of foot traffic (it’s well-worn) although it does appear that you’re technically not supposed to go down it. Anyway, if you head down the trail and rock hop upstream (assuming the pots aren’t boiling), you get nice views of Pe’epe’e Falls (it’s pronounced peh-eh peh-eh in case you’re wondering), and can eventually reach the falls if you’re not deterred by the swarms of mosquitoes.

Epic Travel → North America → Hawaii → The Big Island → Boiling Pots and Pe’epe’e Falls