Its been raining heavy for the past few weeks in East Hawaii, so now that we are getting some beautiful sunny days, I wanted to go out to see the amazing waterfalls happening close to Hilo while doing some errands in town. I'm instantly drawn to visiting some of the gorgeous scenic areas around town when the sun opens up and creates beautiful light to the landscape.
The Wailuku river running through Hilo all the way to the ocean has a series of interesting to amazing waterfalls lining the various areas from the higher to lower elevations.
Above and closer to the mouth of the ocean, the waterfalls are smaller but still dramatic and colorful with flowered trees adding highlights to this mostly green jungle. An older water turbine in the green building adds more cascading water to this sweet spot.
The open area at the mouth has a series of older bridges with this one just facing the ocean, the town of Hilo is just to the left of this photo.
Further uphill is the more famous waterfall and destination spot of tourist to Hilo - Rainbow falls is quite accessible with easy trails going up to the top of the waterfall below. Little rainbow wisps at the bottom of the spill create a nice effect on the rocks.
Further uphill is one of my favorite waterfalls - Pe'epe'e falls. It is not as easy to access with a slippery hike to the bottom which is only done by locals in the know. There are boiling pots or circling currents that spill into pools down the hill into Rainbow falls further downhill.
Here's a shot of the boiling pots below which are extremely dangerous and not swimmable in my opinion.
There are many smaller streams and waterfalls also connecting with the main river like this almost hidden falls next to Pe'epe'e.
Its amazing to see these beautiful falls on a clear sunny day and know its just in the heart of Hilo town. I don't think I can ever tire of visiting these places when I'm in town just doing my errands.
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